22.11.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 443/5
2.12.
Further integration of the EU energy market will play an important part in enhancing the affordability and the security of energy supply.
For this purpose sufficient interconnection capacity (7) is necessary and correspondent infrastructure must be deployed, particularly in energy ‘islands’ (such as the Iberian Peninsula (8)).
To promote a competitive advantage of the EU in renewable energy and to ensure that renewables deployment does not endanger the security of supply, a realistic roadmap for the development and deployment of an efficient renewable energy infrastructure should be drawn up, including storage capacities and sufficient transmission interconnection that make it possible to export the exceeding production to other Member States.
In order to deploy quickly the clean energy infrastructure, Member states need to speed up permit-granting.
2.13.
To enhance a level playing field, the EU should promote global carbon pricing.
Carbon taxation should be developed and streamlined to reflect the climate impact in a symmetric way and take into account measures to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
Furthermore, the EESC should pursue its goal to phase out subsidies on energy sources that are harmful to climate and environment, while ensuring that the transition towards a climate-neutral economy happens in a just manner.
2.14.
The current hike in energy prices presents a great threat both in terms of increasing energy poverty and in competitiveness loss for energy-using companies.
The EESC calls for actions successfully mitigating the impact of increased energy prices and preventing energy poverty, including among EU households.
Temporary and well-targeted measures for limiting the impact of the spike in energy prices are also necessary to help SMEs and energy-intensive industries to survive the crisis.
2.15.
As part of a long term consideration of how the energy market is responding to shocks, it is important to address the root causes of the energy price increases (currently the price of gas), as suggested by the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), based on its recent assessment (9) of the current electricity market design and pricing system.
Moreover, a review could be considered with regard to markets where concentration of energy supply is high, and thus normal operation can be distorted.
2.16.
Citizens and consumers should be at the centre of energy transition, through the support of community energy and local ownership and the transformation of energy consumers to prosumers.
The EESC calls for transparent information, consultation, and education campaigns to encourage citizens’ commitment to energy transition.
2.17.
The EESC also calls for more attention to transition problems on the road to a carbon neutral society, in particular with respect to industries that for various technical and/or financial reasons need time to adapt to maintain competitiveness on the market.
2.18.
The EESC has welcomed the updating of the TEN-T Regulation to better respond to topical objectives and needs.
Special attention needs to be paid to identifying priorities and defining a network connecting all capitals, major cities, ports, airports, and terminals of Member States, based on European Corridors.
Corridors should include, as appropriate, ‘sea bridges’ or high density regular ro-ro sea links between corridor ports.
With respect to territorial cohesion, the EESC considers that Core Network Corridors must be better linked to the regional, urban, and local dimensions.
Gaps between technical TEN-T requirements and military mobility requirements also need to be identified to implement a dual use of transport infrastructure.
2.19.
Given the rather long lead time of the TEN-T projects, the EESC supports a European framework of regulation and financing to provide medium- and long-term stability in terms of corridors and projects until the completion of the European Network.
The EESC also calls for urgent national plans for ordinary and extraordinary funding for the maintenance of TEN-T infrastructures and a Core Network monitoring plan at the European level.
2.20.
Considering the essential role of aviation for the EU, the EESC calls for a comprehensive and effective approach to promote the recovery and growth of sustainable aviation.
(7) (8) (9)
Interconnection is already a target of the EU (at least 15 % by 2030, but some countries are far below): https://energy.ec.europa.eu/ topics/infrastructure/electricity-interconnection-targets_en Commission document on ‘Energy Islands’: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/de/MEMO_18_4622 ACER’s Final Assessment of the EU Wholesale Electricity Market Design