Clean energy initiatives advance at the EU Energy Council

On the margins of the Energy Council of 20 December, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson supported a series of energy transition initiatives for the EU and its regions.

Following up on the European Wind Power Action Plant abled by the Commission in October, 26 member states and representatives of the EU wind sector agreed on a European Wind Charter setting out a series of voluntary commitments for the development of the sector. The signatories committed to ensure a predictable project pipeline, improve auction design, and scale up manufacturing capacity in the EU. They will also ensure that business processes, governance, products and services comply with high qualitative standards related to environment, innovation, cybersecurity and labour. 21 Member States also made voluntary pledges to boost wind power capacity in the next 3 years. More information is available on this webpage. Commissioner Simson's speech is available here.

The Commission and member states also signed a Joint Declaration committing to establish a European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition to create a favorable environment for investments, and to scale up the private funding needed to achieve the EU's energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050. You can learn more here and Commissioner Simson's speech is published here.

Two key initiatives to enhance the resilience of the EU's energy system and support electrification were also sealed yesterday, just weeks after the adoption of the first list of Projects of Common and Mutual Interest and the EU Action Plan for Grids. First, Commissioner Simson signed a political declaration with the governments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to accelerate the full integration of the Baltic States into the internal energy market by February 2025. The synchronisation of Baltic and Continental European grids will enable the three Baltic states to gain full control of their electricity networks and reinforce energy security, while also facilitating the energy transition. The project has been supported with record EU financial support of more than €1.2 billion. More information is available on this webpage.

Secondly, Commissioner Simson signed a Memorandum of Understanding together with the Energy Ministers of France, Portugal and Spain to further enhance the integration of the Iberian Peninsula energy markets with the rest of Europe, as part of the work of the regional high-level group for South-West Europe on interconnections. The signatories committed to cooperate on key strategic projects such as establishing cross-border interconnections and swiftly implementing priority electricity projects.  More information is available here.

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