158th CoR Plenary Session (29-30 November 2023)

Rapporteur: KLISOVIĆ Joško Commission: ENVE
The Opinion proposes some key messages on the revision of the European Green Deal framework, in terms of policy framework. It aims to anticipate the revision of the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action regulation, with a view to influencing the proposal of the European Commission. It propose some key messages on the overall governance of the Green Deal, and its connection with the economic governance of the EU, with the Sustainable Development Goals and with the concept of a wellbeing economy. It also advance some key messages on the social dimension of the Green Deal.

The European Commission is trying to reconcile the environmental and economic objectives by advocating a green and digital transition, which should lead to green growth, decoupling growth and pollution. The 2023 strategic foresight report 'Sustainability and people's wellbeing at the heart of Europe's open strategic autonomy' illustrates this effort. However, greening the economy and making the EU more autonomous do not always overlap. Whereas the Commission emphasises synergy between these objectives, that is just one possible scenario for the EU's future. Focusing on greening or autonomy only are equally viable scenarios, as is the possibility of achieving none of these objectives.

This EPRS paper analyses progress made in carrying through the policy agenda set by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and her College of Commissioners when they took office in December 2019. It looks in particular at the state of play with respect to delivery of the agenda's six key priorities, as we enter the final months running up to the 2024 European elections. While the Commission's first priority – the European Green Deal – ranks highest in terms of the number of initiatives planned (154), the second, fourth and fifth priorities – 'A Europe fit for the digital age', 'A stronger Europe in the world', and 'Promoting our European way of life' – have higher rates of initiatives actually adopted so far (more than half for the second and fifth, almost three quarters for the fourth, largely due, for the latter, to its less legislative nature).

This paper analyses the EU’s policies for energy and climate, using Börzel’s theoretical framework on Europeanisation, and examines Member States’ Green Deal responses, strategies, and compliance. As expressed in their final NECPs, although Member States’ responses vary, most of the critical components were partially addressed, while the others were largely addressed. We observe a considerable variation in Member States’ strategies.

In 2022, over 41 million Europeans were unable to keep their homes adequately warm. Energy poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, considered to be caused by a combination of low income, high energy expenses, and poor energy efficiency in buildings. The EU has been addressing this issue in various legislative and non-legislative initiatives, most recently in the context of its climate policies and energy transition, as well as the energy crisis. The Gas and Electricity Directives ensure the protection of vulnerable consumers, and the Energy Efficiency and Energy Efficiency of Buildings Directives require measures to alleviate energy poverty alongside efficiency efforts. The 'renovation wave' initiative under the European Green Deal aims to boost structural renovation in private and public buildings, while the Social Climate Fund includes households in energy poverty among its main beneficiaries.

This paper highlights that the model of the natural gas market liberalization has changed the market rules and the nature of supply contracts, creating some difficulties on the supply side. This article also presents the impact of EC Communication on Energy Prices (adopted in October 2021) a, highlighting how the European regulation aims to tackle the exceptional rise in global energy prices, providing a “toolbox” that the EU and its Member States can use to address the immediate impact of current prices increases, and further strengthen resilience against future shocks.

From 15 to 17 May 2023 the European Parliament is hosting a conference on the topic 'Beyond Growth'. This study introduces participants and other stakeholders and interested parties to the debate on going beyond growth. Organised in two parts, the study first presents the status quo, with our reliance on economic growth as the main policy driver and gross domestic product (GDP) as a key economic measure, blind spots related to this reliance, and the need to address multiple system failures. It notes today's focus on research and innovation and describes measures already brought forward in the European Green Deal to this effect.

According to the EU policy, all member states are to have climate-neutral and zero-gas-emission economies by 2050. The energy transformation is to be largely based on the diversification of the energy sources used, with a dominance of renewable energy sources (RES). The article presents a research problem, where the question was asked whether achieving climate-neutral energy independence based solely on RES is possible at the regional level. It seems that the positive answer is an important argument in the discussion about the possibility of all member states achieving the goals set under the European Green Deal. Additionally, stating the possibility of energy independence from RES for a selected region is an important argument to promote just and bottom-up initiatives in order to carry out the energy transformation more effectively.

This work proposes to give insights into the EU citizens' pre-pandemic perception of some key renewable energy transition, sustainability and resilience factors, which may be crucial with a view to finding prime energy policy indications useful for the post-pandemic recovery. Making use of 2019 EU Eurobarometer data, selected aspects of EU citizens' perceptions of energy policy are evaluated. Logit regressions are estimated to render energy perceptions modelling. Results suggest evidence of interrelated renewable energy transition issues for the EU, including resilience, vulnerability, cooperation, competition, sovereignty, security, safety and climate change. The findings indicate important social and environmental implications for energy policy modelling.