Please note that this does not constitute a formal record of the proceedings of the meeting. It is dependent on interpretation and acts as an unofficial summary of the debate.
Dominique Ristori, Director-General for Energy, European Commission, spoke about the increasing important of energy infrastructure and the EU place and role in the international context. He recalled that the Energy Investment Forum was launched in the context of the new Energy Union strategy adopted by the European Commission in February. This is valid when speaking about energy security and the completion of the IEM. It is also one of the main priorities of the Juncker Commission, he said.
Dominique Ristori then continued that the EU has the opportunity to progress a lot in all fronts regarding infrastructure. He informed the audience that he had the previous week chaired a meeting with member states on the second list of PCIs, on which a consensus was reached. “This is remarkable and a clear signal of a political will of all member states to progress in the same direction” he said. In this respect, he complimented the capacity of the EU to act collectively in the context of regions.
He recalled that the TEN-E regulation is now in place allowing for the EU to act on full speed and deliver in the field of infrastructure. In the same context, he welcomed the formal signature of the gas interconnector between Poland and Lithuania in mid-October, and the upcoming signature (December 14) of the Litpol electricity interconnection between Lithuania and Poland, and the NordPol interconnection between Lithuania and Sweden, aiming to end the electricity isolation of the Baltic States. He furthermore highlighted the progress made in the South West and the Central and South East Europe. It is precisely in this context, that barriers regarding infrastructure should be phased out and improve energy security, he concluded.
Lars Christian Lilleholt, Minister for Energy, Utilities and Climate, Denmark, briefly mentioned that his country is fully committed to the creation of the Energy Union and the establishment of a truly interconnected internal energy market. He then presented the case of the Nordic Power markets, the integration of which has been key to Denmark and for which the aim is to connect the Nordic Power top to the rest of the EU. Cooperation is essential to create a stronger market, boost trade across borders and get the right infrastructure projects moving.
Morten Petersen (ALDE, DK) took the floor next to stress the importance the European Parliament is attaching to the Energy Union initiative and securing energy supplies for EU member states. The MEP highlighted that energy security is a common EU challenge, regretting that EU member states jealously stick to their prerogative to design their energy mix and hence ignore that there lies a common interest. This common interest should be reflected in stronger governance on cross border energy issues, Petersen said.
The MEP then criticised the Energy Security communication for focusing mainly on gas and for the priority given to gas pipelines and electricity interconnections. “This is not the whole story; infrastructure to ensure that we can effectively utilise renewable energy is needed” he said. Renewable energy has to be brought into the infrastructure that is needed at the level of distribution grids, i.e. “smart grids”. In addition, energy efficiency should be considered as a viable alternative to importing energy resources, he noted.
What was missing from the IEF agenda, he continued, was system integration. More than just connecting different parts of the electricity and gas grids, system integration is also about bringing together power, mobility and heat in a single and efficient system. Based on the Danish beneficial experience from DHC, the MEP advocated for bringing DHC infrastructure to the level of European priority infrastructure.
He said that for this exercise to succeed one needs strong governance, when managing and allocating cross border infrastructure. Developing of more precise rules is delegated to national TSOS by ENTSO-E, while negotiating these rules takes place through the CACM network code. That requires TSOs to act as one, first at regional level, and then at European Level. In addition, an authority is needed to enforce these rules. Hence ACER must take this responsibility and should be assisted in this task through more powers and personnel. He added that the recent ACER opinion on the German-Austrian price zone is very interesting and applauded the stepping up by the Agency.
He concluded by saying that the EIF has the chance to further integrate markets, countries and economies, thereby increasing the EU societies’ resilience.
Dominique Ristori said that this good cooperation at EU level should continue to send the strong signal to investors. The energy market design proposals to be presented in 2016 will aim at the coordination of capacities beyond national frontiers and the full use of demand response. Access to finance remains a real challenge, despite the fact that the return investment for energy projects is relatively good. EFSI should be used for projects of strategic investments and to this end, a new cooperation will be established between the EIB and the EC while new bridges should be built between investor promoters or projects and investors on the other hand.
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