Council regulation: renewables receive short-term acceleration (Update)
Last week, we published an analysis of the leaked Council regulation proposal that addresses the bottlenecks in permitting procedures that hamper faster renewables deployment in the EU. The European Commission then presented the third emergency measures proposal to the European Council on November 9. Compared to the preliminary version obtained by Greenfact, the public version goes a step further.
Namely, the European Commission wants to reduce the permitting times for the repowering of renewable energy plants from one year to six months, including environmental assessments. The permitting times for heat pumps, solar installations and grid connections for repowered renewable energy plants remained unchanged (3 months and 1 month accordingly).
These new rules “will bridge the gap pending the entry into force of the new Renewable Energy Directive (RED II)”, announced Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, that aims to increase the share of renewables in total primary energy consumption to 40 – 45%.
Since the proposal was tabled by the Commission in the form of a Council regulation based on Article 122 TFEU, the European Parliament is excluded from the legislative procedure. Consequently, the Council now has to review and either adopt the proposal as is, suggest amendments or reject it.
We will keep you updated on the latest developments as more information comes through.