In line with the wishes of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Energy Ministers of the EU27 Member States reached a political agreement in principle on the ‘networks’ package at the ‘Energy’ Council in Luxembourg on Friday 26 June.
The agreement takes up the two compromise texts (the seventh versions) sent by the Presidency to the Member States on Tuesday (see EUROPE 13895/6). One concerns a revision of the Regulation on the Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E), the other a Directive on accelerating permit-granting.
During a final round of the table, the Ministers were able to raise the concerns that remained ahead of the forthcoming negotiations with the European Parliament. The ‘industry’ committee (ITRE) has not yet adopted its position, but the vote on accelerating permit-granting procedures is scheduled for 2 July, while the vote on the TEN-E revision is scheduled for September.
A strong geopolitical signal for infrastructure security. Estonia (like Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, and Sweden) welcomed the addition of a category dedicated to the security and resilience of European energy infrastructure in the TEN-E revision. Indeed, in the event of infrastructure sabotage, funds may be allocated for repairs, capped at 5% of the total financing planned through the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’.
Submarine cables in particular were recognised as ‘critical infrastructure’. An important point for Finland, since this is a real challenge in the Baltic Sea, according to Minister Sari Multala. “This sends a clear geopolitical message, although we hope not to need (to use these funds to repair damage)”, she said.
In a joint statement consulted by Agence Europe, those States called for the protection of critical energy infrastructure to be given greater consideration in the forthcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034).
Greece also welcomed this inclusion. “The threat hanging over these cables and our energy infrastructure affects the whole of Europe”, said Minister Stavros Papastavrou. “We must be aware of the risk of energy being used as a weapon against us, and this is not limited to Russia”.
Sweden abstains on TEN-E. Sweden acknowledged that the specific nature of its situation regarding congestion income had been recognised (see EUROPE 13829/13). However, Minister Ebba Busch announced that she would abstain in the vote on TEN-E.
“We have received very clear promises from the Commission: the electricity market Directive can be interpreted in such a way that Sweden can use congestion revenues more flexibly, and not only to build networks. That is precisely what we were expecting”, she told the press. “The Commission has met our requests on this point, but doubts remain as to the concrete implementation of these promises”.
As for the ‘permits’ Directive, Sweden said it was concerned about the equivalence granted between permits for renewable energy and so-called ‘clean’ energy.
Towards development of hydrogen market. In line with the sector’s requests, several Member States referred to the importance of including hydrogen in the trans-European networks and facilitating permit-granting for these projects. This is the case for Austria, Germany, Spain, Malta, and Denmark.
France and Spain believe ‘permits’ Directive lacks consistency. On the Directive on accelerating permit-granting, France and Spain abstained. The reason is its lack of consistency with the existing environmental protection frameworks, notably the Water Framework Directive (2000/60) and the ‘soil’ Directive (see EUROPE 13737/31), as well as the European strategy on water resilience (see EUROPE 13653/7). France said it regretted that the harmonised logic adopted under the ‘environment’ simplification package (see EUROPE 13895/9) was not also being applied to the energy sector.
The thorny financial issue. Luxembourg Minister Lex Delles believes that, in order to guarantee implementation of the Regulation, financing must be strengthened. “In view of the weakening of the provisions on the use of congestion income, it is essential to secure an appropriate allocation for Connecting Europe Facility as part of the ongoing budget negotiations”, he said. (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)