Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2016)759 - Governance of the Energy Union - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2016)759 - Governance of the Energy Union. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2016)759  |
| date | 30-11-2016 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
A resilient Energy Union with an ambitious climate policy and a fundamental transformation of our energy system can only be achieved through a combination of coordinated action – legislative and non-legislative – at EU and national level. To achieve this, the Energy Union needs strong Governance ensuring that policies and measures at various levels are coherent, complementary and sufficiently ambitious. The main objective of this initiative is to set out the necessary legislative foundation for this process in view of delivering the Energy Union, which will have to be complemented by non-legislative measures and action for the Governance to succeed.
In line with the Commission's strong commitment to Better Regulation, the proposal will result in significant reduction of administrative burden for the Member States, the Commission and other EU Institutions. Current planning and reporting requirements (for both the Commission and Member States) in the energy and climate fields provide benefits in terms of detailed information on specific policy areas and support the implementation of sectorial legislation. Nevertheless, they are found in a wide range of separate pieces of legislation adopted at different points in time, which has led to certain redundancy, incoherence and overlaps and lacking integration between energy and climate areas. Moreover, some of the current requirements have been defined in view of the achievement of the corresponding 2020 targets, and are for that reason not suited to support the achievement of the 2030 Framework for Energy and Climate, nor synchronised with the planning and reporting obligations under the Paris Agreement 1 .
This proposal will bring together the existing scattered planning and reporting obligations from the main pieces of EU legislation across energy, climate and other Energy Union related policy areas and thereby achieve a major simplification of obligations. It reduces, aligns and updates such requirements, and removes existing duplications. In total, the proposal integrates, streamlines or repeals more than 50 existing individual planning, reporting and monitoring obligations of the energy and climate acquis (integrating 31 and deleting 23). The streamlined political Governance process between the Commission and Member States, with close involvement of other EU Institutions, will align frequency and timing of obligations, significantly enhance transparency and cooperation and thereby bring additional benefits in terms of reducing administrative burden.
In its conclusions of 24 October 2014 the European Council agreed on the 2030 Framework for energy and climate 2 , based on the Commission's proposal 3 . The conclusions required the development of a reliable and transparent Governance, without any unnecessary administrative burden, to help ensure that the EU meets its energy policy goals, with the necessary flexibility for Member States and fully respecting their freedom to determine their energy mix. It emphasized that this Governance should build on existing building blocks, such as national climate programmes, national plans for renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as the need to streamline and bring together separate planning and reporting strands.
The Energy Union Strategy of 25 February 2015 broadened the scope of Governance – beyond the 2030 Framework for energy and climate – to all five dimensions of the Energy Union (energy security solidarity and trust; internal energy market; moderation of demand; decarbonisation including renewable energy; and research, innovation and competitiveness).
The State of the Energy Union of 18 November 2015 and the Commission's Guidance to Member States on the national energy and climate plans annexed to it provided further details and specified that the Governance should be anchored in legislation.
The Conclusions of the Energy Council of 26 November 2015 recognised that the Governance will be an essential tool for the efficient and effective construction of the Energy Union. In parallel, regular discussions are held between the Commission and Member States in the framework of the Technical Working Group on National Energy and Climate Plans.
The European Parliament's resolution 'Towards a European Energy Union' of 15 December 2015 called for the Energy Union Governance to be ambitious, reliable, transparent, democratic and fully inclusive of the European Parliament and to ensure that the 2030 climate and energy targets are achieved.
On this basis, this proposal aims to establish the regulatory framework for the Governance of the Energy Union with two main pillars: First, the streamlining and integration of existing planning, reporting and monitoring obligations in the energy and climate field in order to reflect Better Regulation principles. Second, the definition of a robust political process between Member States and the Commission with close involvement of other EU institutions in view of the achievement of the Energy Union objectives, in particular its 2030 targets for energy and climate.
On 5 October 2016, the European Union ratified the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4 November 2016. The proposed Regulation contributes to the implementation of the Paris Agreement including its 5 years review cycle and ensures that monitoring, reporting and verification requirements under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement are harmoniously integrated in the governance of the Energy Union.
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
Based on the outcome of a Fitness Check of the energy acquis and the relevant parts of the climate acquis, the proposed Regulation either leaves intact, repeals or amends planning and reporting obligations on Member States and monitoring obligations on the Commission currently found in sectorial legislation. The proposal has been prepared in parallel to the Commission's reviews of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, and of the various pieces of legislation encompassed by the Market Design Initiative with a view to ensure full coherence among these initiatives. Consistency with other pieces of EU legislation in the climate and energy fields has also been ensured.
Moreover, the proposal fully integrates the Climate Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR) to ensure integration between the energy and climate fields. The proposal, in general, continues the approach of existing planning, reporting and monitoring provisions under the MMR, which was the result of an earlier streamlining exercise in the climate field. However, this proposal streamlines the existing provisions of the MMR with legislation in the energy field, updates the existing provisions to make them fit for monitoring the implementation of the proposed Effort Sharing and the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulations and for fulfilling the EU's commitments under the Paris Agreement. As the proposal covers a range of subject areas, it was decided not to propose a recast of the MMR. Nevertheless, the Commission attaches significant importance to maintaining all content that was in the MMR that is not proposed to be changed by the current proposal.
• Consistency with other Union policies
The initiative is also linked to other policy areas such as transport, environment, industry, economy, research and competition. It is however important to note that this initiative – as far as streamlining and integration of planning and reporting is concerned – focuses on the energy and climate areas, while at the same time incorporating some specific reporting and planning strands in other areas. This is necessary to ensure a manageable process with a focus on the main objectives of the Energy Union.
The aspect of Commission recommendations to Member States as set out by the proposed Regulation is complementary to and consistent with the recommendations issued in the context of the European Semester, which focuses on macro-economic and structural reform issues (rarely linked to energy or climate), whereas the Governance addresses energy and climate specific policy issues. Where energy and climate specific policy issues have macroeconomic or structural reform relevance, they should still be part of the European Semester.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
The legal bases of all provisions of the Regulation are Articles 191, 192 and 194, TFEU.
The proposed Regulation pursues a legitimate objective within the scope of these articles. The ordinary legislative procedure applies generally for the adoption of measures according to Article 192(1) TFEU and in Article 194(2) of the TFEU.
• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)
The need to respect the subsidiarity principle is one of the fundamental considerations behind the Governance based on the approach that the Member States themselves should establish the national plans and the objectives and measures set out therein.
Contents
As several elements of the Energy Union Strategy relate to objectives set at EU level, action at EU level is needed to ensure the attainment of these objectives, as well as coherence of energy and climate policies within the EU and across its Member States, while preserving flexibility for Member States. Moreover, the majority of the energy challenges facing the Union cannot be met through uncoordinated national action. The same holds true for climate change, which is by its very nature trans-boundary and cannot be solved by local, national or even EU action alone.
Moreover, because of the cross-border relevance of each dimension of the Energy Union, EU action is needed to further promote enhanced cooperation among Member States. None of the Energy Union dimensions could be effectively implemented in the absence of an EU Governance between Member States and the Commission fostering regional cooperation in energy and climate policy. EU level action is also necessary to ensure that the EU is ready to participate fully in the review processes under the Paris Agreement.
Finally, EU action is necessary to streamline existing planning, reporting and monitoring obligations, as existing requirements in this regard are set in EU legislation – these can only be amended and / or repealed through a legislative proposal at EU level.
The establishment of a solid Energy Union Governance will help to ensure that the EU and its Member States collectively achieve the agreed objectives of the Energy Union, including the 2030 targets for energy and climate, and find coordinated and common solutions to common challenges in an effective and affordable manner. This is imperative in view of the considerable investment needs in the energy sector over the next decades.
Member States will benefit from a streamlined and simplified planning and reporting framework for their energy and climate policies. More efficient and coherent administrative procedures both within national authorities and between the Member States will enable a more efficient development and implementation of energy and climate policies. The private sector will benefit from more transparent national regulatory frameworks as basis for investment decisions in the energy and climate fields; and citizens will seize the benefits of better information on the implementation of the Energy Union and its associated policies.
• Proportionality
The Governance proposal anchored in legislation (rather than a non-legislative approach) is necessary to ensure that all Member States contribute to the process and attainment of common objectives and targets in a comparable manner, to improve regulatory stability and investor certainty, and to ensure a common monitoring between Member States and the Union.
The approach to national planning and reporting is based on the Fitness Check (see below) which had as a main objective to assess the proportionality of the current approach and as appropriate improve the respect of the principle.
The approach to the iterative process between Member States and the Commission is based on Commission recommendations rather than e.g. Commission Decisions to ensure proportionality and full respect of the Member State's rights under Article 194 TFEU.
• Choice of the instrument
A Regulation rather than a Directive is necessary to ensure direct applicability of the provisions and thereby ensure comparability of national energy and climate plans and reports. The direct applicability has the further advantage to enable the plans to be in place well before 2021.
Moreover, many of the provisions of the Regulation are not directed to Member States and could therefore not be implemented by national transposition (e.g. obligations on the Commission, the process around Commission recommendations, the European Environment Agency, etc.).
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
Ensuring regulatory fitness and simplification is one of the core objectives of the proposed Regulation. In line with the Commission's commitment to Better Regulation, the proposal has been prepared inclusively, based on transparency and continuous engagement with stakeholders.
The Fitness Check (REFIT) supporting the proposed Regulation suggests that significant reduction of administrative burden on Member States as well as on the Commission could be expected from the new approach, while being able to only partially quantify such impacts due to the limited availability of reliable data. At the same time, the new approach would result in a series of benefits significantly enhancing coherence and effectiveness. The proposal does not include any exemptions with regard to micro-enterprises nor does it include any dedicated approach to SMEs as such entities are not impacted by the initiative.
The proposed Regulation will enhance the role of e-reporting, which is expected to further reduce administrative burden.
• Impact assessment
The Impact Assessment accompanying this proposal has been prepared and developed in line with the applicable Better Regulation guidance, and the Regulatory Scrutiny Board has issued a positive opinion. Improvements as recommended by the Board have been incorporated in the final version. With regard to policy options for streamlining of planning, reporting and monitoring obligations, the options assessed range from soft (non-legislative) guidance to Member States to various legal approaches to streamline and integrate existing obligations.
Various policy options were also assessed with respect to e.g. updates and periodicity of national plans and reports and the Commission's monitoring; the iterative process between Member States and the Commission including recommendations to Member States; the possible policy response where the aggregated efforts by Member States would be insufficient to meet the agreed objectives at EU level; and the role of regional consultation in the development of national plans.
The Impact Assessment concluded that a new, single legal act fully incorporating the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR) is the preferred option. It pointed to the need to allow for some formal updates of the national plans and biennial progress reports from the Member States and monitoring reports from the Commission (including annual reports for specific policy areas). It concluded that the iterative process with the Commission should cover both the development (ambition) and implementation (delivery) of national plans and that Commission recommendations on national plans and progress reports will be necessary. In addition it concluded that mandatory regional consultations of other Member States on draft and final national plans are necessary to ensure adequate coordination of national planning processes and policies in the context of the Energy Union.
The above mentioned combination of preferred policy options would result in the best impacts in terms of reduced administrative burden and flexibility to Member States while at the same time ensuring a Governance that is sufficiently strong to ensure that the objectives of the Energy Union are met.
Reference of the Executive Summary of the Impact Assessment: SWD(2016)395 4
Reference of the positive opinion of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board: SEC(2016)494 5
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
A Fitness Check of the planning, reporting and monitoring obligations within the EU energy acquis (REFIT) supported the preparations of the proposed Regulation. The Fitness Check also evaluated interlinkages between the planning, reporting and monitoring obligation in the energy acquis with the obligations under key EU climate legislation.
The general conclusion of the Fitness Check is that while the existing planning, reporting and monitoring system within the EU energy acquis has delivered overall good results, there is potential for significant improvement of the current EU energy acquis in this regard, as well as strengthening interlinkages with the EU climate acquis, thus significantly improving the current benefits/costs ratio.
On this basis the Fitness Check strongly suggested that a systematic integration of Member States' planning and reporting as well as of the Commission's monitoring will be necessary to ensure coherence and enable Member States as well as the Commission to make full use of synergies and ensure consistency between various planning and reporting strands, also to make the system fit for purpose under the new overarching framework of the Energy Union, including the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework targets. The proposed Regulation implements the recommendations of the Fitness Check with the exception of a few cases where this was not possible mainly due to the fact that the frequency did not coincide with the one foreseen in the Governance Regulation or that the obligation proved to be too technical.
• Stakeholder consultations
A public consultation was launched on 11 January 2016 to collect views and input from stakeholders and citizens. The consultation lasted over 12 weeks and closed on 22 April 2016. 6
The online survey received a total of 103 submissions with additional submissions by email, out of which 15 from Member States 7 . The responses to this public consultation fed into the Commission's evaluation and Fitness Check of existing planning and reporting obligations as well as into the Impact Assessment underpinning the proposed Regulation.
A vast majority of respondents recognised the importance of existing planning and reporting obligations, but also agreed on the need to better streamline, align and integrate existing planning and reporting obligations to avoid gaps, duplications and inconsistencies and to focus the streamlining efforts on planning obligations more closely related to the objectives of the 2030 Framework. Several stakeholders pointed towards the necessity to better integrate current national plans in these areas 8 , while also highlighting the necessity of streamlining and reducing overall planning obligations.
A vast majority of respondents considered that a single legislative act is the preferred option for streamlining planning and reporting obligations in the energy and climate field post 2020. Member States were more divided between the legislative and the non-legislative options.
Most respondents considered that the national plans should reflect all five dimensions of the Energy Union, be produced on the basis of a detailed template (also confirmed by Member States in the Technical Working Group) and have a clear focus on the areas with quantified EU targets. A limited number of respondents – including several Member States – rather favoured short strategic national plans. Several stakeholders, including a majority of Member States, insisted on the necessity of avoiding new administrative burden or additional costs.
On the political process governing the finalisation and review of the plans, many respondents advocated a transparent and participatory planning process conducive to investor confidence and widespread public acceptance.
Finally, respondents generally agreed that the new Governance system should facilitate the coordination of national energy policies and foster regional cooperation and that the Commission should play an important role in the process.
A more extensive summary of the public consultation is included in the Impact Assessment.
• Collection and use of expertise
The Fitness Check and the Impact Assessment underpinning the proposed Regulation were supported by two studies carried out on behalf of the Commission by Trinomics and Amec Foster Wheeler during the first half of 2016.
The scope and approach to the national plans in the proposed Regulation and its Annex 1 (template for national plans) has benefitted from the work carried out by the Technical Working Group on National Energy and Climate Plans, chaired by the Commission with representation of all Member States.
Expertise reflected in stakeholder contributions during the public consultation has been used as additional source of knowledge to complement the analysis.
• Fundamental rights
As the proposed policy primarily addresses Member States as institutional actors, it is consistent with the Charter for fundamental rights.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
The main objectives of this proposal are to streamline the planning, reporting and monitoring obligations and to establish a Governance mechanism. Member States would have to submit integrated plans and reports to the Commission at regular intervals. On the basis of the information provided by the Member States, the Commission should produce the necessary monitoring reports. Officials, temporary agents or external personnel working in the Energy and Climate action policy areas will be allocated for the performance of the tasks of the Commission, within the Commission's existing overall human resources outlook. Regarding the European Environment Agency (EEA), a phasing in of additional contract agents (up to 3 in 2020) is requested on top of the existing human resources programming for the EEA.
The costs resulting from the implementation of the proposed Regulation by DG ENER and DG CLIMA – which are further set out in the attached legislative financial statement – will be fully accommodated under the current programmed financial envelope of the budget items in question until 2020. In so far as the financial resources needed for the European Environment Agency are concerned, those will be additional in comparison to the current financial programming.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
The Commission's and Member States' reporting and assessment set out in this Regulation will ensure a close monitoring of the implementation of the Regulation.
The Regulation will be subject to a formal review in 2026. The review should take into account the results of the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement.
• Explanatory documents (for directives)
Not applicable.
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
Chapter One of the proposed Regulation sets out its scope and subject matter and sets outs the definitions of terms used.
Chapter Two of the proposed Regulation sets out the obligation for Member States to produce a national integrated energy and climate plan for the period 2021 to 2030 by 1 January 2019, as well as for subsequent ten-year periods. Annex I provides a binding template for the plans, providing further elements on e.g. policies, measures and analytical bases.
This Chapter also establishes an iterative consultation process between the Commission and the Member States before the finalisation of the plan, based on the draft national plan to be provided to the Commission by 1 January 2018, and every ten years thereafter for the following ten year periods. In this framework the Commission will be able to make recommendations regarding the level of ambition of objectives, targets and contributions as well as on specific policies and measures included in the plan. Other Member States will also be able to comment on the draft plan in the framework of regional consultations. The plans need to be updated by 1 January 2024 (still with a 2030 perspective).
Chapter Three sets out the obligation for Member States to prepare and report to the Commission long-term low emission strategies with a 50 years perspective, which are key to contribute towards economic transformation, jobs, growth and the achievement of broader sustainable development goals, as well as moving in a fair and cost-effective manner towards the long-term goal set by the Paris Agreement.
Chapter Four of the proposed Regulation sets out the obligation for Member States to produce biennial progress reports on the implementation of the plans from 2021 onwards across the five dimensions of the Energy Union to track progress. In these progress reports, Member States are also required to report biennially on their national climate change adaptation planning and strategies, aligning the timeline with the Paris Agreement.
This Chapter also specifies the reports which have to be produced annually, e.g in view of complying with the international commitments of the European Union and its Member States, and to have the necessary basis for the compliance assessment under Regulation [OP: act number XXX on binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States from 2021 to 2030 for a resilient Energy Union and to meet commitments under the Paris Agreement and amending Regulation No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and other information relevant to climate change] 9 and Regulation [OP: act number XXX on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry into the 2030 climate and energy framework and amending Regulation No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and other information relevant to climate change] 10 . These reports relate to e.g. GHG inventories and the support to developing countries and allow the Union and its Member States to demonstrate progress in implementing their commitments under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. It also provides for transparency on the use of revenue generated from the auctioning of allowances under the Directive establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading (the ETS Directive).
This Chapter also provides for the necessary content of these reports across the five dimensions, and establishes an e-reporting platform which should build on and benefit from existing reporting processes, databases and e-tools, such as those of the European Environment Agency (EEA), Eurostat (ESTAT) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Chapter Five of the proposed Regulation sets out the necessary monitoring and assessment by the Commission to monitor Member States progress in relation to the objectives set in the national plan. It also sets out a process for the Commission to make recommendations on how to enhance the ambition of the national plans or regarding the implementation of the plans in order to achieve the objectives already set.
This Chapter furthermore provides for the aggregate assessment of the first national plans to identify an eventual gap to the EU targets as a whole. It provides for Commission recommendations based on the progress reports and sets out that the Commission shall take action at the EU level or request measures from Member States if the assessment of progress suggests that the EU's 2030 targets for energy and climate will not be met (i.e. reducing potential ambition and delivery gaps, or closing these gap). It also sets out the approach to the Commission's annual State of the Energy Union.
Chapter Six of the proposed Regulation sets out the requirements for national and Union inventory systems for GHG emissions, policies, measures and projections. The establishment of such systems is required internationally. They will also support the implementation of National Plans with regard to the decarbonisation dimension.
This Chapter also provides the legal basis for the establishment of Union and national registries in order to take account for the nationally determined contributions and allows for the use of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes under Articles 4(13) and 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Chapter Seven of the Proposed Regulation sets out the mechanisms and principles for cooperation and support between Member States and the Union. It also sets out the role of the European Environmental Agency to support the Commission as appropriate with monitoring and reporting work under this Regulation.
Chapter Eight of the proposed Regulation sets out the necessary provisions for conferral of certain powers to the Commission to adopt delegated and implementing acts in precisely defined situations.
Chapter Nine of the proposed Regulation establishes an Energy Union Committee (an examination committee under Regulation (EU) No 182/2011) and sets out provisions on the review of the Regulation in 2026, repeals and amendments of other pieces of EU legislation to ensure coherence, as well provisions on transitional measures and entry into force.