Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the notification to the Commission of investment projects in energy infrastructure within the European Union and replacing Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 617/2010

The Commission is proposing this new Regulation to the European Parliament and Council following the judgment of the European Court of Justice to annul Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 617/2010 concerning the notification to the Commission of investment projects in energy infrastructure within the European Union and to maintain its effects until a new regulation has been adopted on the appropriate legal basis, namely Article 194(2) TFEU.

The scope of this proposed Regulation is identical as that of the annulled Regulation. Member States are required to notify every two years to the Commission data and information on investment projects concerning production, storage and transport of oil, natural gas, electricity (including electricity from renewable sources), biofuels and the capture and storage of carbon dioxide.

Investments to be notified to the Commission encompass planned and under construction projects, transformation of existing infrastructure as well as decommissioning projects of a certain size, on a five-year horizon, in the territory of Member States, including interconnections with third countries. Undertakings concerned should be under an obligation to notify to the Member State the data and information in question.

The Court's ruling of 6 September 2012 was decided after the European Parliament took legal action against the Council in October 2010 contesting the legal basis used for the adoption of Regulation 617/2010 and requesting the Court to annul it (Case C-490/10). The Council used Articles 337 TFEU and 187 TEAEC as a legal base, on the grounds that the Regulation relates to the activity of collecting general information.

Following the Parliament's request, the Court annulled Regulation 617/2010, but maintained its effects until a new Regulation has been adopted on the correct legal basis within a reasonable period of time. In order to comply with the Court's judgement and to ensure continuity in the observation of investment projects in energy infrastructure, the Commission proposes a Regulation with the same content as the annulled Regulation and suggests a few adaptations, which are strictly necessary due to the new legislative process. These modifications concern the new legislative procedure (ordinary legislative procedure), the date for a review of the act (31 December 2016 instead of 23 July 2015) and the date for reporting.

Following the ruling of the Court, the effects of the annulled Regulation are maintained until a new Regulation has been adopted. Even though we expect a swift adoption of the new Regulation in the course of 2013, it is unlikely that the new Regulation will be adopted before July 2013, which is the next deadline for Member States to notify their investments according to the annulled Regulation. The next reporting exercise in 2013 should therefore still be based on the annulled Regulation. In the new Regulation proposed, notification of data should be done from 1 January 2015 and from then onwards every two years.

The form and technical details of the notification to the Commission of data and information on investment projects in energy infrastructure are set out in the Annex to Commission Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 833/2010 of 21 September 2010 implementing the annulled Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 617/2010. Commission Regulation 833/2010 will remain applicable until its revision, which will follow the adoption of this proposed Regulation.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)153: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:153:FIN

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