The European Parliament on Wednesday (14 September) backed a mandatory target to reduce the EU’s energy consumption down 14.5% by 2030, setting the EU assembly on track for tense negotiations with reluctant EU countries.

The 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive is in the process of being revised as part of EU plans to cut emissions in more than half by 2030.

And Russia’s attack on Ukraine has brought a renewed sense of urgency to those talks.

“We are in a crisis where Putin is shutting off gas. One of our most effective answers to this is energy efficiency,” said Niels Fuglsang, a Danish MEP from the socialist S&D group, who steers the Parliament’s position on the proposal.

In its REPowerEU plan presented in May, the European Commission proposed boosting the EU’s energy efficiency target to 13% savings by 2030, up from the 9% goal it had initially tabled a year before.

EU countries tentatively endorsed the 9% objective in July but Fuglsang now believes this can be pushed upwards thanks to the strong mandate obtained by the European Parliament.

“Parliament has today voted for ambitious and binding energy efficiency targets for the EU and for individual member states,” the Danish MEP said after the vote on Wednesday (14 September).

The position was adopted with 469 votes in favour, 93 against and 82 abstentions.

Final negotiations coming up

With the plenary vote cleared, Parliament can now enter negotiations with the Council and the Commission as part of so-called “trilogue” talks to finalise the law.

Although they voted in favour of the amended directive, the Greens said the Parliament could have aimed higher. At the same time, “it was very important to us that we go into the trilogue with a strong mandate,” explained Jutta Paulus, a German MEP who is the Greens’ negotiator on the directive.

However, efficiency advocates are worried that EU member states will not follow the Parliament’s lead.

In the past, EU countries have shown little appetite for energy savings, and have missed their European objectives for 2020.

During the last EU Council meeting in July, some EU countries attempted to water down the revised directive, until a last-minute intervention by Germany.

Paulus said she is optimistic that there is now sufficient backing for more ambition among EU countries, given the changed geopolitical context.

“The Germans have also joined [the energy efficiency proponents]. So I think there has been some change,” she told EURACTIV.

According to the green lawmaker, “a lot has happened in the last few years.”

“Look at how heat pump sales have gone up in a member country like Poland, with the help of subsidy programmes,” she pointed out, adding that Czechia was deliberating “how to best modernise the district heating system.”

Czechia currently holds the rotating EU presidency and will chair negotiations between the Parliament, Commission and EU member states to finalise the law before the end of the year.

Source: Euractiv.com