COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE FITNESS CHECK Reporting, Planning and Monitoring Obligations in the EU Energy acquis Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the Governance of the Energy Union, amending Directive 94/22/EC, Directive 98/70/EC, Directive 2009/31/EC, Regulation (EC) No 663/2009, Regulation (EC) No 715/2009, Directive 2009/73/EC, Council Directive 2009/119/EC, Directive 2010/31/EU, Directive 2012/27/EU, Directive 2013/30/EU and Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013
Date: 2016-11-30
Institutions: Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission
Subjects: adaptation to climate change, energy cooperation, energy diversification, energy efficiency, energy research, greenhouse gas, reduction of gas emissions, renewable energy, single market

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   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 30.11.2016  SWD(2016) 396 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE FITNESS CHECK  Reporting, Planning and Monitoring Obligations in the EU Energy acquis Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the Governance of the Energy Union,  amending Directive 94/22/EC, Directive 98/70/EC, Directive 2009/31/EC, Regulation (EC) No 663/2009, Regulation (EC) No 715/2009, Directive 2009/73/EC, Council Directive 2009/119/EC, Directive 2010/31/EU, Directive 2012/27/EU, Directive 2013/30/EU and Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 {COM(2016) 759 final} {SWD(2016) 397 final}  
 
 
1.  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This  Staff  Working  Document  presents  the  results  and  findings  of  the  Fitness  Check 
evaluation carried out by the European Commission on the planning, reporting and monitoring 
obligations  within  the  EU  energy  acquis.  In  particular,  the  Member  States'  and  the 
Commission's reporting and planning obligations are assessed, as well as potential knock-on 
effects  on  stakeholders  as  data  providers,  where  these  can  be  identified  for  further  details1. 
The purpose of this Fitness Check is to ascertain whether there is a potential for simplification 
and reduction of administrative burden within the EU energy acquis and to assess the extent to 
which the current obligations are in line with the Better Regulation criteria of effectiveness, 
efficiency,  coherence,  relevance  and  EU  added  value.  It  also  assessed,  which  obligations 
could be streamlined in the framework of the new governance system of the Energy Union in 
order  to  improve  on  the  five  Better  Regulation  criteria  and  reduce  the  overall  costs  and 
administrative burdens on Member States and on the European Commission while enhancing 
the benefits resulting from the planning, reporting and monitoring obligations. In this aspect, 
the Fitness Check also evaluated interlinkages between the planning, reporting and monitoring 
obligation in the energy acquis with the obligations under the key EU climate legislation.  

The Fitness Check assessed a total  of 91 obligations in  31 different legal acts of the energy 
acquis  and  based  on  the  findings  of  the  evaluation  provided  a  recommendation  for  each  of 
these  obligations  in  relation  to  the  governance  system  of  the  Energy  Union  in  terms  of 
whether  the  obligation  in  question  should  be  integrated  in  the  governance  system,  be  kept 
entirely  separate  of  it,  be  kept  separate  but  reflected  in  the  integrated  national  energy  and 
climate  plans  (National  Plans)  and  integrated  national  energy  and  climate  progress  reports 
(Progress  Reports)  or,  for  those  obligations  that  were  found  to  provide  no  added  value  or 
presenting unjustified administrative burdens, to be entirely repealed and thus deleted from the 
energy acquis.  

Overall, the Fitness Check found that the regulatory framework relating to planning, reporting 
and monitoring obligations within the EU energy acquis delivers mostly good results, while at 
the  same  time  enticing  a  series  of  shortcomings.  The  majority  of  current  obligations  are 
considered effective and make a positive contribution towards achieving their objectives. The 
findings  are  however  less  positive  with  regard  to  efficiency,  were  a  high  administrative 
burden  of  some  obligations  was  found  to  be  disproportionate,  although  overall  efficiency  is 
considered  acceptable  to  good.  The  relevance  of  current  obligations  is  generally  considered 
good,  with  only  a  relatively  small  number  of  obligations  found  to  be  irrelevant  or  not 
providing  information  that  is  actually  used.  The  evaluation  also  found  that  most  of  the 
information  collected  or  produced  through  current  obligations  would  not  be  available  from 
other sources and gives to MS and the Commission the possibility to measure progress at EU 
and national level and benefit from best practice examples.  

Overall  the  Fitness  Check  assessed  that  there  is  still  potential  for  improving  the  planning, 
reporting and monitoring obligations with regards to coherence in particular. Inconsistencies 
and incoherence have been identified both within the energy acquis as well as concerning the 
interlinkages with the climate acquis. The Fitness Check therefore recommends that out of the 
91  reporting,  planning  and  monitoring  obligations  within  the  energy  acquis,  19  should  be 
repealed, 18 should be integrated in the national plans and/or progress reports, 15 should stay 
separate  in  sectorial  legislation  but  should  be  reflected  in  the  plans  and/or  progress  reports, 

1  
regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_ener_024_cwp_refit_reporting_planning_obligations_en.pdf. 

Roadmap 

available 

Fitness 

Check 

See 

at: 

http://ec.europa.eu/smart-

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while 39 obligations should stay separate from the plans/progress reports. In addition, for the 
22 obligations stemming from the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR) and following 
earlier streamlining in the climate acquis the recommendation is to repeal 1 and integrate the 
21 remaining obligations.  

The analysis strongly suggests that a systematic integration of Member States' planning and 
reporting  as  well  as  of  the  Commission's  monitoring  will  be  necessary  to  ensure  coherence 
and  enable  Member  States  as  well  as  the  Commission  to  make  full  use  of  synergies  and 
ensure consistency between various planning and reporting strands. On this basis, the Fitness 
Check concluded that while the existing planning, reporting and monitoring system within the 
EU  energy  acquis  has  delivered  overall  good  results,  there  is  potential  for  significant 
improvement  of  the  current  EU  energy  acquis  as  regards  the  planning  reporting  and 
monitoring obligations, as well as concerning interlinkages with the EU climate acquis, thus 
significantly improving the current benefits/costs ratio. This improvement and development of 
the  system  will  also  help  make  the  system  fit  for  purpose  under  the  new  overarching 
framework of the Energy Union. 

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