In two important votes in Plenary today, Socialists and Democrats spearheaded the way to the alignment of the EU’s energy policy to the demands of the European Green Deal. A much-needed revision of the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure and a plea to the European Commission to develop a comprehensive approach to energy storage, are the two tools used by S&Ds to coordinate policies with EU climate goals.
Dan Nica, S&D spokesman on industry and research, said:
“We want to give the Commission a clear signal that the European energy transmission infrastructure is a priority, and we insist that all EU energy projects should be in line with our climate targets. The expected revision of the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure regulations will give the European Parliament the tools to influence the mechanism for the next list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI), our goal is to ensure that all regions will equally benefit from the interconnection of the EU energy system and to make sure that the regulation truly supports projects contributing to the energy and climate objectives.
“Our Group remains fully committed to contribute to the fulfilment of the EU climate and energy goals, and we strongly believe that a revision of these regulations could further enhance our commitment, ensuring also the security of energy supply and the diversification of energy sources.
“We will constantly fight for reaching a 2030 target for reduction of emissions to at least 55%, compared to the 1990 level, and to revise the 32% binding target as set in the Renewable Energy Sources Directive up to 40% by 2030.”
Niels Fuglsang, S&D negotiator on energy storage, said:
“What we have managed to achieve in the negotiations on energy storage is a central focus on green hydrogen, while emphasising the role and contribution of active consumers in the energy systems. Our Group has also managed to include a central role for research and innovation policies, and for Horizon Europe, in the development of energy storage technologies.
“This report calls on the Commission to develop a comprehensive strategy on energy storage in order to exploit and explore the full potential of each member state. To do that, we call to remove the current regulatory barriers for the exploitation of storage technologies. We also put under scrutiny the different kinds of energy storage solutions available. The European Commission estimates that the EU will need to be able to store six times more energy than today to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We need to act now!”
