Brussels, 27 October 2016

Polish voice on the Energy Union during EURELECTRIC’s conference on Winter Package

“Sensitive area of national energy policy planning should remain primarily the Member States’ competence.”

Marta Gajecka, Polish Electricity Association’s Vice-President has presented the position on the governance of the Energy Union during EURELECTRIC’s conference on the Winter Package in Brussels on October 27th.

The Polish Electricity Association’s (PKEE) underlines the importance of the balance between all pillars of the EU energy policy when discussing the Energy Union governance. “None of the pillars should be deemed less important than the other one. Therefore, we would like to underline that climate change, security of supply and energy independence of Member States, economic competitiveness, as well as affordability of energy should all be treated on equal footing.” - said Marta Gajęcka.

In this respect, PKEE proposes to include in the EU governance the energy independence, energy poverty indicators and energy bill index which will help measure the delivery of Energy Union objectives in the area of security of supply and affordability. Import dependency factor should reflect the indigenous fuels share, both renewable and conventional, in the energy mix, while energy poverty indicator should present the share of the energy spending in disposable household income. PKEE is also support EURELECTRIC’s suggestion to take into account energy bill index, which should reveal among other energy price components also the policy support costs and taxes.

Having appreciated the important role of EU governance in the implementation of the EU climate and energy policy targets, a common effort is essential to achieve EU 2030 RES and energy efficiency targets which are not specified at the national level. However, as underlined by Marta Gajęcka - regional coordination and consultation with the EC during the adoption of National Energy and Climate Plans should not lead to further constraints of Member States’ competences in defining their own energy policy and future energy mix laid down in the Lisbon Treaty.   

In terms of electricity interconnectivity, PKEE does not underestimate the common European objectives on increasing the interconnection capacity up to 10% by 2020 and up to 15% by 2030. However, the implementation of these ambitious targets should reflect already existing technical and operational limitations, which are not intentionally caused by the Member State. As it is well presented by the ACER opinion on the compliance of NRAs’ decisions approving methods of cross-border capacity allocation in the CEE region (23.09.2015), the uncontrolled loop flows seriously hamper the trading interconnection capacity. Therefore, this factor should be recognised by the EC in constructing the electricity interconnectivity key indicator.

Panelists, representing several European electricity companies, associations and institutions, have discussed also how the central role of consumers should be ensured and on the regional approach to building Europe’s Single Energy Market. The debates have been organized in the context of the package of legislation including ie. electricity market design, governance, revision of renewable directive, revision of energy efficiency directive – significant for the future of power sector, which is to be approved by the EC in December.

The conference was summarized by keynote speaker, M.A. Canete, Climate Action and Energy Commissioner who underlined the role of European and regional approach to the internal energy market.