Slovenes hope to lift the fog over energy

The Slovenian presidency sees energy policy and climate change as key priorities for its six-month term of office. The major challenge for the presidency will be to make progress on the energy market liberalisation package.

Energy ministers had a first chance to set out their views on the package presented by the European Commission on 3 December. But the meeting did little more than confirm known positions and gave the two leading opponents of the Commission’s approach, France and Germany, a chance to call for a third option (in addition to ownership unbundling or an independent transmission system, ISO).

Many member states see the French and German request for a third option as a delaying tactic. With the Commission, they are concerned that waiting for these two countries to present their own version of a third option could undermine efforts to get political agreement in the Council on the package by June.

There are only two Council meetings of energy ministers under the Slovenian presidency, one on 28 February and the other on 6 June. Officials say that meeting the June deadline will require substantial progress to be made in February. The Slovenian presidency expects the March European Council, which focuses on economic issues, to take stock of the state of negotiations. The March summit could be an opportunity to settle some of the issues, leaving the major divergences over the best way of ensuring effective unbundling, through separation of generating and transmission assets or an ISO, for the second half of the presidency.

The pressure for getting political agreement by June comes from a widespread feeling that it will not be possible to make major progress on the energy legislation during the French presidency in the second half of 2008, given France’s opposition to breaking up its energy giants. Officials expect that the energy package will need to go into second reading with the European Parliament, so, depending on the degree of progress under the French presidency, it may only be concluded under the Czech presidency in the first half of 2009.

The Slovenian presidency has more modest goals for the climate change package which the Commission is planning to present on 23 January. The package includes measures to achieve a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and national targets to achieve a 20% share of energy from renewable sources in the EU. It also includes a revision of the emissions trading scheme, measures for carbon capture and storage, clean coal technology and a revision of the guidelines for environmental state aid. The Commission has delayed presenting the package until January because of the difficulty of finding an approach which will be acceptable to member states and to avoid a damaging display of disunity while the Bali conference on climate change is going on.

There are two Council meetings of environment ministers during the Slovenian presidency. But as the proposals will only be made public a month after the beginning of Slovenia’s term in office, it will realistically only be able to make a start on work. Most of the heavy lifting will be done under the French presidency and the package will probably be finalised only under the Czech presidency. Agreement on the package will allow the EU to finalise its position for the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change from 2012.

The Slovenian presidency sees energy policy and climate change as key priorities for its six-month term of office. The major challenge for the presidency will be to make progress on the energy market liberalisation package.