The MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) adopted, on Thursday 2 July, Niels Fuglsang’s (S&D, Danish) report on accelerating permit-granting procedures, one of the two texts in the ‘grids’ package, by 57 votes to 3, with 8 abstentions. The MEPs who voted against and those who abstained belong to the Patriots for Europe and European Conservatives and Reformists groups.
The MEPs also voted in favour of opening interinstitutional negotiations (64 votes to 3). Negotiations with the Council of the European Union, which adopted a political agreement in principle at the ‘Energy’ Council on Friday 26 June (see EUROPE 13897/1), are expected to begin “before the summer ”, according to the rapporteur. Indeed, the opening of negotiations will be announced at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg next week and, if there are no objections, no further vote will take place.
The Parliament wants to accelerate procedures at all costs. The draft directive on the acceleration of permit-granting procedures for infrastructure aims to amend three existing directives: one on the promotion of the use of renewable energy (RED II, 2018/2001), another on the internal market for electricity (2019/244) and the third on the internal market for gas (2024/1788).
Niels Fuglsang’s report (see EUROPE 13876/7) introduces several changes compared with the initial proposal from the European Commission (see EUROPE 13767/4). The two most sensitive ones concern the introduction of derogations from environmental impact assessments under the principle of overriding public interest for certain small-scale or already existing electricity and renewable energy infrastructure projects, and the introduction of tacit approval if the competent public administration does not take a decision within the deadlines.
“Thanks to this agreement, we are speeding up the construction of European electricity grids and the development of national renewable energy, which are essential to electrify European households and industry, ensure affordable energy and energy independence, and achieve Europe’s energy and climate objectives”, the rapporteur said after the vote.
Parliament and Council aligned in weakening environmental assessments. The Council of the EU’s political agreement in principle also introduced several changes (see EUROPE 13895/6), one of which concerns spatial planning under RED II. The Council wants to give Member States more room for manoeuvre to deploy renewable energy infrastructure in areas where this was previously ruled out for environmental reasons. It is also retaining the principle of ‘overriding public interest’.
Sweden, France and Spain expressed concerns about this text on Friday 26 June. Indeed, the latter two countries abstained in the vote because, in their view, the directive is inconsistent with existing environmental protection legislation. Sweden, for its part, disagrees with the equivalence established by the Council between permits granted for renewable energy projects and so-called ‘clean’ energy.
Benefits for local communities. The challenge in the coming months will be to reconcile the positions of Parliament and the Council on the involvement of citizens and local authorities in the context of the installation of infrastructure. Where Parliament wants to give them a greater role, notably to make projects more acceptable, the amendments introduced by the Council make several provisions optional, in particular those on the conditions for sharing the benefits of projects.
Lastly, the Council wants to make optional, after a certain period, the digitalisation of the permitting procedure and tacit approval of permits.
The second text in the ‘grids’ package, concerning the revision of the TEN-E regulation governing trans-European energy infrastructure (see EUROPE 13875/14), will be put to a vote in the ITRE Committee in September.
See the ‘Fuglsang’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/mol (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)