The European Energy Ministers will be meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday 13 May as part of their informal meeting under the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. While the official programme focuses in part on support for Ukraine, with the reconstruction of its energy infrastructure, the European Commission’s REPowerEU roadmap for a move away from Russian fossil fuels is likely to intrude on the informal exchanges.
This roadmap was presented on 6 May (see EUROPE 13634/1) and the Commission has announced legislative proposals to phase out Russian gas, oil and nuclear fuels, which will be unveiled in June, when the Polish Presidency hopes to adopt its conclusions on energy security (at the Energy Council on 16 June).
According to the latest draft conclusions discussed at technical level (see EUROPE 13635/19), the Polish Presidency intends to welcome the content of the Commission’s roadmap and encourage the publication of the planned legislative measures.
However, it will come up against the positions of Hungary and Slovakia, who reject the Commission’s copy outright and will not tolerate any mention of it in the Council’s conclusions as they stand. However, these must be adopted by consensus.
While the official programme for the informal meeting does not include this item, there is a good chance that the subject will be raised “in the corridors” or during a debate on energy security in the afternoon, according to several sources.
Following the publication of the roadmap on 6 May, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó, criticised the plan, saying that the Commission wanted “to make us bear the cost of their ill-considered support for Ukraine and its hasty accession to the EU”.
However, most of the discussions between Ministers at the informal meeting will concern this support. During the morning plenary session, they will be discussing the reconstruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and preparations for winter in Ukraine and Moldova.
The working lunch will then be used to discuss the legal approximation of Ukraine and Moldova to the acquis communautaire of the European Union.
The afternoon session will focus on energy security through improved access to essential clean technologies. The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, will take part in this discussion, two weeks after the IEA’s International Energy Security Summit in London (see EUROPE 13627/1).
To see the programme: https://aeur.eu/f/gqy
To see the latest draft conclusions on energy security: https://aeur.eu/f/gqx (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)