New Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, elected by the European Parliament on 15 July, will put energy, networks and infrastructure at the centre of his ambitious ten-point agenda, whose first three points all touch upon energy. Elected by an overwhelming majority, Juncker will turn the Commission Presidency into a much more political role than his predecessor. This might bring to mind the strong presidency of Jacques Delors, sitting at the table of Heads of State and Government as an “equal”.
Juncker’s speech at the European Parliament on 15 July started with a reference to the difficult recession behind us: many successes, but also huge – in particular social – losses and unemployment. The crisis, as he formulated it, “has taken its toll. The measures taken during the crisis can be compared to repairing a burning plane whilst flying”. Crisis management has been on top of the agenda, to the detriment of strategic preparation for the global challenges ahead, being “digital age, the race for innovation and skills, the scarcity of natural resources, the cost of energy, the impact of climate change, the ageing of our population or the pain and poverty at Europe’s external borders”. Juncker sees his core mission in rebuilding bridges in Europe after the crisis. He proudly refers to the fact that “for the first time a direct link has been established between the outcome of the European Parliament elections and the proposal of the President of the European Commission. Democratic legitimacy and the restoration of confidence of the EU citizens into the EU project is capital.”
Juncker’s agenda focuses on ten policy areas where concrete results have to be achieved in the four years ahead. And he stresses that he will leave other policy areas to the Member States “as they are more legitimate and better equipped to give effective policy responses at national, regional or local level, in line with the principle of subsidiarity.” This message is important considering the huge resistance and distrust of the UK with respect to a new Commission president who has never attempted to hide his federalist approach.
For EURELECTRIC the first three of the ten messages are important. EURELECTRIC subscribes to most of them: a clear low carbon agenda, development of renewables and diversification of technologies, innovation, network development and energy efficiency are key elements of our agenda. EURELECTRIC agrees that the investment environment has to be improved, and that “the focus of additional investment should be in infrastructure, notably broadband and energy networks as well as transport infrastructure, research and innovation.” The connected digital single market, the second agenda point, is highly relevant for the DSOs, to be seen as neutral market facilitators when they handle the data for the smart energy system of the near future. Energy, nevertheless, is not explicitly mentioned in this point, which rather focuses on telecom and ICT without connecting the dots. EURELECTRIC will have to bring this point to the Commission’s attention and has already taken proactive steps with both the ‘New Downstream’ Issue Management, but also the Data Task Force just set up by the DSO unit.
The third point, “A resilient Energy Union with a forward looking climate change policy” takes up a point sensitive notably to Central Europe: energy security, and solidarity, as mentioned in Article 194 of the Lisbon Treaty. But instead of setting up a new structure, as think tanks like Notre Europe had lobbied for, it sees this Union as a reinforcement of today’s institutions on energy. “Europe shall become the World Number One in RES”.
EURELECTRIC will have to work, in the forthcoming Commission, much more than before with other DGs beyond DG Energy, but also directly with the President’s services. Getting a cost-efficient energy policy framework for 2030 with the ETS in the centre and a new focus on networks and innovation are main priorities of the association.