At a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on Tuesday 16 December, MEPs welcomed the ‘grids’ legislative package presented by the European Commission on 10 December (see EUROPE 13770/4), which on the whole was favourably received on both sides of the Chamber.
In particular, this package places an emphasis on more European coordination of grid planning, with a so-called “top-down” approach, which was criticised the day before by some European ministers at the ‘Energy’ Council (see EUROPE 13773/11).
Anna Stürgkh (Renew Europe, Austrian), who is heading up a Parliament own-initiative report on grids, deplored the position of certain governments who are “vehemently” opposed to the idea of a common European grid. “It is precisely this patchwork of national regulations that is making Europe fragile and, above all, costly”, she said.
Seán Kelly (Irish) felt that cross-border coordination was “essential if we want the system to be as efficient and resilient as possible”.
Dan Nica (S&D, Romanian) welcomed in particular the proposal for a reinforced European intervention mechanism, enabling the Commission to intervene via a “gap-filling” process in the event of cross-border needs.
On the contrary, András Gyürk( PfE, Hungarian) fears that the Commission will assume new powers to the detriment of national authorities and network operators.
According to Ondřej Krutílek (ECR, Czech Republic), it is necessary to find the right balance between European centralisation and national autonomy, taking into account the fact that “each country has its own specific conditions and needs in terms of grids”.
He also warned that the massive investment required to develop these new grids will inevitably have an impact on the regulated portion of the cost to consumers. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)