Resolution on the revision of the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure
The European Parliament adopted by 548 votes to 100, with 40 abstentions, a resolution on the revision of the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure.
The TEN-E Regulation identifies the trans-European energy infrastructure priorities to be implemented in order to better match the Union’s energy and climate policy objectives, and identifies projects of common interest needed to deliver on those priorities. It was approved before the adoption of the Paris Agreement, which includes a commitment to ‘holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels’.
Several developments have significantly changed the energy policy landscape in the Union since the adoption of the TEN-E Regulation in 2013.
In its resolution, Parliament welcomed the announcement in the European Green Deal communication that the revision of the TEN-E guidelines will take place on 2020. It called on the Commission to come forward with a proposal, by the end of 2020 at the latest, for a revision of the TEN-E guidelines that takes account, in particular, of the Union’s energy and climate targets for 2030, the Union’s long-term decarbonisation commitment, and the energy efficiency first principle.
The Commission should also propose transitional guidance on spending under the Connecting Europe Facility and on the selection of projects for the fifth projects of common interest list by the end of 2020 to ensure that spending and selection is in line with commitments made under the Paris Agreement.
Members considered that the criteria for granting projects of common interest status laid down in the TEN-E guidelines must be in line with the Union’s climate and energy objectives, including the 2050 climate neutrality objective and with all five dimensions of the energy union, including the objective of affordability.