The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry wants to increase the renewables target for 2030 to 45 percent, as expected. This was stated in a compromise paper on the reform of the Renewable Energy Directive published by “Contexte” and agreed upon by EPP, Renew, S&D as well as the Greens. On July 13, the ITRE is […]
Thousands of North Macedonians have demonstrated against a proposal under discussion to settle the dispute over history and national identity with neighboring Bulgaria. Yesterday, North Macedonian media reported that the demonstrators in the capital Skopje on Saturday evening followed the call of the nationalist opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, which also demanded the resignation of the government […]
In its efforts to dismantle large parts of the gas network in the long term, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs has received backing from the EU Parliament. In the future, municipalities are to be obliged to carry out heat planning, which will also include strategic planning for the decommissioning of gas distribution networks. This […]
The Federal Republic of Germany will coordinate closely with eight other EU states as well as Ukraine and Moldova to secure gas supplies. Last Friday, the task force of the EU Energy Platform for Central Eastern Europe initiative started its work, the Commission announced. The other members are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, […]
In view of difficulties in implementing sanctions against Russia, the Commission is examining options for an EU-wide sanctions authority. Financial Markets Commissioner Mairead McGuinness told the Financial Times that it was open to the idea of establishing a European version of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac). The US Treasury Department agency implements US […]
For the first time since his unsuccessful appearance at the end of the G7 summit, the German chancellor has again spoken out about security guarantees for Ukraine. Details are currently being agreed with the partners and Ukraine, Olaf Scholz said yesterday in the ARD summer interview. However, the commitments for the period after the war […]
The general orientations of the energy ministers on Monday were followed by words of praise from Berlin. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs wrote of a “great success” and “ambitious goals”. But it was its State Secretary Sven Giegold (Greens) who struck a different tone in a video message outside the Council building. Speaking about […]
The admixture of hydrogen in long-distance pipelines favored by natural gas network operators is meeting with resistance in the EU Parliament. The Commission had proposed to oblige transport network operators to accept an admixture of up to five percent at the border crossing from October 2025. ITRE’s rapporteur on the gas market regulation, Jerzy Buzek […]
The German government on Thursday combined the declaration of a national gas alert with an appeal to other EU states. “European neighbors should do everything possible for them to also bring down gas consumption and keep their storage levels high,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said in Berlin. “This is also a signal of […]
Despite an accelerated energy transition, the EU will need about 43.6 million tons of coal more than planned this decade because of the gas crisis. This is according to a non-paper on the REPowerEU plan available to Europe.Table. If this additional primary energy demand for the period between 2020 and 2030 were partially met by […]