European Union Affairs Committee approved positions on Fit for 55 initiatives

NordenBladet —

At its today’s sitting, the European Union Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) discussed two initiatives of the Fit for 55 climate package and approved Estonia’s positions. With this, the Riigikogu has formed a position on all 13 initiatives proposed by the European Commission last summer.

Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee Siim Kallas said that the two initiatives discussed today were the last of the 13 initiatives set as interim targets for 2030, but the green transition did not end there and new initiatives were to be expected in the future. At its today’s sitting, the Committee gave its opinion on the European Commission’s proposals for Energy Efficiency Directive and Renewable Energy Directive, and admitted that the proposals were very ambitious.

According to one proposal of the Energy Efficiency Directive, all Member States have to reduce energy consumption at least 9% by 2030, compared to the 2020 reference scenario, and in 2024–2030 save energy at a rate of 1.5% every year instead of 0.8%. “We support the target of reducing energy consumption, but increasing of energy saving obligation by nearly two times from 2024 cannot realistically be met,” Kallas commented the positions approved by the European Union Affairs Committee. “The directive in itself is noble, and the direction taken with it is right,” the Chairman added.

According to another proposal, 3% of the total floor area of the buildings owned by public bodies has to be renovated annually, which means that 81% of buildings have to be renovated by 2030. Estonia agrees with the target, but wishes that the obligation would apply to the government sector instead of the public sector. The energy efficiency requirements of historical buildings were also spoken about at the sitting, and a question of whether they contradict the Heritage Conservation Act was raised. It was agreed that the heritage protection would have the last word, and it was underlined that Estonia would go to the negotiations with a wish that flexibility would be preserved in setting requirements.

Commenting the amendments to the Energy Efficiency Directive, Deputy Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee Raimond Kaljulaid said that it was a step in the right direction. He also agrees with the wish that Member States retain flexibility in meeting the targets.

According to the proposal of the Renewable Energy Directive, the EU-level target for renewable energy will be 40% instead of 32% by 2030. “The Committee discussed if Estonia could support an even more ambitious target, because we could have the potential of using much more green energy in 2030,” Kaljulaid said. “In my opinion, we could have underlined in our positions that instead of the 40% target, Estonia supports the ambition of 60–65%.”

However, it was pointed out at the sitting that as our potential might not be realised, and that in spite of smaller target, we could still increase the share of renewable energy in Estonia to 60%, there was no need to ask for a larger target at the negotiations. The European Commission recommends Estonia to increase the national renewable energy target to 46% by 2030, and Estonia agrees to it. Currently, the general share of renewable energy in Estonia is 30% of energy.

In Kaljulaid’s opinion, the provision on biomass could also have been amended. Estonia supports strengthening of sustainability criteria for biomass and also the proposal that from 2026, support for plants producing only electricity from biomass will be phased out. “It could have been clarified in the positions, which kind of biomass and in which plants can be used after 2026, or, for example, waste wood in cogeneration plants,” Kaljulaid said.

As a result of discussion, the Committee remained on the opinion that it was not practical to include non-exhaustive lists in the positions, as the notion of biomass is wider that waste wood and biomass is used also elsewhere than cogeneration plants. Besides that, the term “waste wood” is not defined. It was found that such amendments might therefore rise more questions than answers.

As regards the Renewable Energy Directive proposal, it was also pointed out that it would encourage cooperation between states, which suited Estonia in every way. That would concern the wind farm planned to be constructed in cooperation with Latvia, or the Baltic Sea electricity grid development plan. There is also a proposal to establish a 2.6% target for the use of hydrogen and hydrogen-based synthetic fuels by 2030. Estonia does not support that because technologies are not advanced enough to make meeting this target realistic.

The European Union Affairs Committee decided to support the positions presented by the Government on the proposals on the Energy Efficiency Directive in accordance with the opinion of the Economic Affairs Committee. The Committee decided to support the positions presented by the Government on the proposals on the Renewable Energy Directive in accordance with the opinion of the Economic Affairs Committee, partially taking into account the opinion of the Environment Committee. Based on the opinion of the Environment Committee, the European Union Affairs Committee decided to underline the importance of preparing impact analyses.

The positions of the Government regarding the two initiatives were presented to the European Union Affairs Committee by Tauno Hilimon, Expert of the Energy Department and Liisa Mällo, Head of Renewable Energy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

Source: Parliament of Estonia