The ITRE committee published its amendments (142-314, 315-595, 596-885, 886-1190) to the EED draft report of MEP Niels Fuglsang (S&D, DK). The current proposal seems to be aligned with Bioenergy Europe’s position and the deadline for the consideration of the amendments is 20 April. The final adoption of the recast is planned by mid-June.
The AGRI committee has postponed its committee vote on REDIII which was originally scheduled for 31 March and will now take place at the end of April. The delay is due to challenging discussions on compromise amendments. The final text seems to be more favourable on Article 3 and the cascading issue calling for an updated guidance instead of a delegated act.
The REDII Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass Fuels approved the implementing act on rules to verify sustainability and GHG emissions saving criteria and low indirect land-use change-risk criteria during the 10 March meeting. The vote passed with 21 Member States in favour representing 68,17% of the EU’s population. 13 schemes have been positively assessed and an additional scheme is likely to be recognized shortly.
The Environment Council met on 17 March and discussed among other topics the regulation on certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation. Minister Barbara Pompili (FR) opened the discussion highlighting the fight against deforestation as one of the French Presidency’s priorities and many of the Member States’ representatives were supportive of the proposal and the ambition.
The AGRI committee held a hearing on 16 March to consider the draft report on the New EU Forest Strategy. The rapporteur, Ulrike Müller (RE, DE), opened the session (17:07:00) highlighting the multifunctionality of forests and the need to empower foresters while recognising sustainable forestry is a dynamic concept.
The ENVI committee published the full list of amendments to rapporteur Eleonora Evi’s (Greens/EFA, IT) draft opinion: 111-335, 336-560, 561-791. The list includes several positive amendments on the replacement of heating systems but also some concerns regarding Art. 23 and the role of forest biomass.
The revision of the REDIII is proceeding in a fast-paced way both in ITRE and ENVI committees, with the first shadow meeting for discussing compromises on the file scheduled for the 21 March and 22 March.
The second call for the EU Innovation Fund’s large-scale projects closed on 3 March 2022. The total amount of applications was 138 and the total funding requested amounts to EUR 12,1 billion. The projects are now being evaluated. A second call for small-scale projects is planned to be launched end of March 2022.
The application for Horizon Europe Projects for Climate, Energy and Mobility topics is still open. Energy-related projects relevant for the sector can be found under Cluster 5 in CL5-2022-D3-01, application deadline is 24 April 2022.
On Tuesday, the ITRE committee discussed about the recently released RePowerEU Communication by the Commission. Committee members welcomed the communication and Commissioner Kadri Simson answered questions regarding an emergency plan if imports from Russia would stop tomorrow and faster permitting. The question why bioenergy was not included as a solution in the communication was left unanswered. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.
