Consideration of the REDIII Draft Report in ITRE Committee

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will consider Markus Pieper’s draft report on REDIII on Thursday, 3 March from 9.00 – 12.00. This will be an opportunity for the rapporteur and the shadows to present their opinions on the file and to ask questions. The streaming can be followed here. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

AGRI Committee Debate on Forest Strategy

On Monday, 28 February, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development debated the role of forestry in the new EU Forest Strategy (full draft agenda). During the presentation of the draft report, Luisa Regimenti (EPP, IT), rapporteur for opinion, highlighted the importance of Sustainable Forest Management to ensure long-term production and maintenance of ecosystems’ services. Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, FI) emphasised that understanding the variety of forests is key and therefore the “the huge potential of biomass and increasing biodiversity and carbon sequestration cannot be done if they get a one size fits all approach.” For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

Bioenergy Europe’s New Policy Director

As of 3 March, Irene di Padua will step into the role of Policy Director, taking over from Giulia Cancian. Irene will oversee the activities of the department whilst coordinating the Task Force National Advocacy as well as the WG Domestic Heating.

EED Updates

The ITRE committee rapporteur Niels Fuglsang (DK, S&D) published the draft report on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast. The report will be presented in the committee meeting of 3 March and MEPs can table amendments on the draft until 8 March. The deadline for the consideration of amendments is 20 April, and the adoption of the report is expected in June (dates might be subject to changes). The position of the Council on the EED recast is also available hereFor more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

ITRE Draft Report on REDIII

The ITRE committee is expected to release a draft report on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive written by Markus Pieper (EPP, DE). In discussing the report MEP Pieper has said that forest management “cannot be defined uniformly throughout Europe,” and that his “report therefore, deletes the proposal for a delegated act to implement the cascading principle.” For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.

REDIII AGRI Amendments

The AGRI committee published the second part of amendments tabled on the revision of the REDIII. Several MEPs advocated for a fairer framework to ensure bioenergy operators are aligned with the transition. A more detailed analysis and planned next steps will be shared soon. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

REDIII Second Revision

The second revision of the Renewable Energy Directive has now been released to the Council. This document shows where current negotiations in the Council are on REDIII and more changes are expected. Preliminary observations of the current document include modifications to the GHG savings criteria, exemption threshold, no-go areas, and the cascading use of biomass, all of which are moving in the right direction. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.