Dear Members of the Parliament,
The European power industry, represented by Eurelectric, is committed to be a driving force in delivering a cost-effective energy transition by powering the European Green Deal. Going forward, we welcome the current revision of the Trans-European Networks-Energy Regulation (TEN-E Regulation).
Eurelectric welcomes the overall innovative and concrete proposal of the text recently adopted by the Parliament, and in particular its position to support the eligibility of decentralised projects to PCI status under the “Smart electricity Grids projects” categories. However, we would like to raise awareness on a remaining key point in need of urgent assessing during the trilogue.
In particular, we believe that the current eligibility criteria applicable to the category of “Projects of Mutual Interests”, should be relaxed until the project respects the decarbonisation objectives of the Union and those of the third countries involved. More concretely, we call on the Parliament to align its position on the Council’s proposal which suggests that a project can be eligible to PMI Status if it demonstrates a significant net socio-economic benefits with only one Member State (instead of two) and at least one third country. This would facilitate the implementation of projects notably led by Third Countries which have developed close and long-term relationship with the EU and which are committed to similar decarbonisation objectives.