EU lawmakers agree ‘flexible’ renewable energy targets for 2030
Political groups in the European Parliament sealed an agreement Tuesday evening (16 January) on a proposed Energy Union governance bill, assigning a strict yet flexible timeline for EU countries to meet the bloc’s 2030 objectives on renewable energy, EURACTIV has learnt.
The agreement was sealed yesterday evening when group leaders from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political faction in Parliament, backed a watered down version of the draft regulation on the governance of the Energy Union, EurActiv reports.
The governance bill, drafted by Green lawmakers Claude Turmes and Michèle Rivasi, complements a related directive on renewable energies, by setting intermediary targets on the way to the bloc’s 2030 renewables objective, and requiring EU countries to report on progress made at regular intervals.
“We came to a compromise with the EPP to introduce more flexibility in the linear trajectories for the deployment of renewable energy until 2030. So we now have the EPP’s support for the plenary vote, which is good news,” Turmes told EURACTIV.
As part of the trade-off, Parliament negotiators agreed to have three milestones instead of four on the way to 2030 – the first in 2022, when 20% of the renewable target should be met, and the third in 2027, when 70% of the target should be met.
