Diplomats meeting ahead of the Energy Council in Brussels could not agree on Commission proposals to raise the share of renewable energies in the EU to 20% of consumption by 2020, the German EU Presidency said.
Germany's Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Peter Witt, told reporters on Monday (12 February) that he and his colleagues could "agree on everything" contained in the Commission's 'energy and climate change package' of 10 January, except on two points:
- Whether to make the 20% renewable energy target legally binding, and;
- whether to break up energy groups network activities from energy generation ('ownership unbundling').
"If member states reject both an overall binding target as well as concrete support for renewables across all sectors, their decision can only be interpreted as evidence of a worrying lack of resolve to combat climate change," said Greenpeace, in a statement ahead of the Council meeting.
In spite of this, ministers did reach agreement on biofuels, tallying with the Commission's suggestion to increase their share in transport fuels to 10% by 2020, up from less than 5% at present. Germany had tried to push for a higher 12.5% target but could not find enough support, Witt said.
On unbundling, Witt said the text has been drafted "in sufficiently broad terms" for all to agree on as it limits itself to listing a number of options for EU heads of states and government to choose from at a summit on 8-9 March.
France in particular has been trying to convince its partners to agree on "a third option" besides ownership unbundling and stricter regulation under the supervision of an independent system operator (ISO), the two options suggested by the Commission.
But France's proposal has been criticised as being equivalent to a status quo. "For me, the move by France to oppose the separation of interests between the grids operations and the power production is part of a broader strategy to allow EDF to have a quasi monopoly in France and to play monopoly abroad," said Claude Turmes, a Green MEP.
However, any political agreement at the Council will only be indicative, as the Commission has yet to table a formal legislative proposal. When it does so later this year, qualified majority voting will apply. This means that the Commission can ensure that reluctant countries are overruled if it feels confident enough that they can be placed in a minority.
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