Second Report on the State of the Energy Union

In the blog entry State of the EU Energy Union, I listed various official documents, including:

Second Report on the State of the Energy Union; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final (15 pages)

Updated Roadmap for the Energy Union; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final ANNEX 1 (21 pages)

The Energy Union’s five dimensions: policy observations at Member State and EU level; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final ANNEX 2 (6 pages)

2nd report

The Second Report on the State of the Energy Union covers a lot of ground in clear prose, but I think we get the most mileage out of a fairly short excerpt if we go for the two introductory paragraphs:

For the Energy Union, 2016 was the year of delivery. It was a year in which the vision of the Energy Union Framework Strategy1 was further translated into concrete legislative and nonlegislative initiatives, most recently with the "Clean Energy for all Europeans" package presented on 30 November 2016. As a next step, the low emission mobility strategy2 will also be translated into concrete initiatives, in line with the Commission Work Programme for 2017. 3 It is important that the co-legislators work towards the adoption of the proposed initiatives without delay and in line with the Joint Declaration of the three institutions on the European Union's legislative priorities for 20174 , to allow for a swift energy transition on the ground.

The Energy Union is a European priority project, identified by the Juncker Commission as one of the 10 political priorities5 , in which five dimensions are closely interlinked: energy security, solidarity and trust; a fully integrated European energy market; energy efficiency contributing to moderation of demand; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness. Progress has been made on all these dimensions.

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1 COM(2015) 80.

2 COM(2016) 501.

3 COM(2016) 710.

4 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32016C1224(01)&from=EN.

5 https://ec.europa.eu/priorities/sites/beta-political/files/juncker-political-guidelines-speech_en_0.pdf; see also the European Council's Strategic Agenda for the Union in the times of change, Annex I to the European Council conclusions of 26/27 June 2014.

Updated roadmap

The annexed Updated Roadmap for the Energy Union provides the state of play: an update per 1 February 2017 for the framework strategy initiatives, which have already been adopted or where the time schedule changed. You find the references to the proposals and actions.

Policy observations

The annex on the Energy Union’s five dimensions: policy observations at Member State and EU level offers main observations which can be drawn from national developments during 2016. The policy observations are the basis for a more in-depth analysis of Member States’ policies which the Commission intends to carry out in 2017.

On six pages only, the summaries offer a good overview.

Just a reminder to those, who want more:

Monitoring progress towards the Energy Union objectives – key indicators; Brussels, 1.2.2017 SWD(2017) 32 final (137 pages)

The Commission staff working document (SWD) is presented in the following manner (pages 4 and 5):

This SWD is an update of the one presented in 2015, building on exchanges with and feedback from the Member States and taking account of stakeholder opinions collected from related reports and events. The current set of indicators may be refined in the years to come depending on the availability of data for new, more suitable indicators, and on the development of new indicators able to provide more accurate evidence on particular policy lines or sub-sectors.

• The purpose of defining a set of energy and climate indicators and reflecting them in a scoreboard is threefold:

o to streamline the monitoring process and ensure coherence in the assessment of energy and climate policies;

o to provide a commonly-agreed metric to support policy-making process by monitoring progress on EU energy and climate objectives;

o to summarise, on a scoreboard, latest data and recent changes affecting the most relevant aspects of the five dimensions of the Energy Union.

Ralf Grahn

The Single Market Strategy in the EU Competitiveness Council

The first day, 28 November 2016, of the EU Competitiveness Council was dedicated to issues relating to the internal market and industry. Despite more concrete news items available, I am going to approach the horizontal issue of the Single Market Strategy.

Single Market Strategy

Thirteen months ago the European Commission published the new single market strategy (available in 23 of the 24 official EU languages): Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business; Brussels, 28.10.2015 COM(2015) 550 final (22 pages).

The communication was accompanied by two staff working documents, available in English only, but with more detailed facts and reasons.

The economic and competitiveness analysis is contained in SWD(2015) 203, available through the legal portal Eur-Lex in three parts, but more conveniently downloaded from a Commission web page as a “printed” whole document: Single market integration and competitiveness in the EU and its member states - Report 2015 (112 pages).

The second Commission staff working document is A Single Market Strategy for Europe - Analysis and Evidence; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 202 final (108 pages).

For a structured overview you may want to study the Commission web page The Single Market Strategy.

Competitiveness Council

In order to prepare the discussion in the Competitiveness Council 28 November 2016, the Slovakian presidency had prepared a discussion paper: Single Market: One year after Single Market Strategy adoption (document 14246/16).

After a brief description of the Single Market and the Single Market Strategy, the discussion paper summarised some of the progress and future work:

C. Progress so far

The Commission has delivered first initiatives identified in the Single Market Strategy. In May 2016, the Commission adopted its legislative proposal to prevent discrimination against consumers based on nationality or residence (initiative on geo-blocking), as part of the e-commerce package. In June 2016, the Commission adopted a Standardisation package, which included the Joint Initiative on Standardisation (presented in the Competitiveness Council of 28 September) and a dedicated guidance document on service standards. The Commission also adopted a European agenda for the collaborative economy in June 2016. This Communication identifies good practice solutions and explains how existing EU law should be applied; clarifying key issues faced by market operators and public authorities alike, namely market access requirements, consumer protection, liability, labour law and tax. Moreover, in November 2016, the Commission will adopt the Start-Up initiative, a communication that aims at helping young firms to scale up and grow in the Single Market.

D. Steps forward

Many of the initiatives have not yet been adopted by the Commission. The Commission plans to deliver some important proposals and packages in the remainder of 2016. Towards the end of the year the adoption of the services package is foreseen. The package will include a proposal to improve the notification procedure for legislation with regard to services, a proposal for a European Services Card (identified as the Services passport initiative by the Single Market Strategy), which is to improve the cross-border provision of services and initiatives on regulated professions, such as a proportionality test to be applied when developing new legislation in this field and guidance to Member States on the matter of regulated professions.  

The Commission will continue adopting the remaining initiatives announced in the Single Market Strategy in 2017. These include a review of the intellectual property rights enforcement framework (IPRED), a Compliance and assistance package, including the Single Digital Gateway, the Single Market Information Tool and the Action Plan for SOLVIT. This will be followed by a Goods package, including initiatives regarding mutual recognition and addressing the increased rate of noncompliance within the Single Market for Goods. Also in 2017 the Commission will present a Public Procurement package including the voluntary ex-ante mechanism for large infrastructure projects. Finally, the Commission is planning to publish a Communication setting out best practices to facilitate retail establishment within the Single Market.

The presidency tried to structure and to focus the discussion by providing the following questions to the national delegations:

E. Questions for discussion

1. What is your assessment with regards to the implementation and the progress achieved so far concerning the Single Market Strategy?

2. Where do you see the biggest potential to inject new dynamism into the Single Market, to the benefit of EU consumers and the EU's industrial competitiveness?

3. How can the Council help ensure the swift and ambitious implementation of the Single Market Strategy?

The press conference wrapping up the first day (internal market and industry; 28 november 2016; webcast 17:05) emphasised the sense of urgency among ministers to achieve progress on the single market.  

Ralf Grahn

Political fundamentals at root of eurozone crisis

The crisis in the eurozone (and the European Union) gives rise to interesting questions about political economy and economic policy; actually it leads us to fundamental political values and problems.

National governments in the eurozone may be in a state of silence and denial, but luckily freedom of expression exists in the world outside.

Less blinkered than in the corridors of power, people are - to various degrees - edging towards two realisations:

1) Political issues need to be dealt with at an appropriate level. Human rights and fundamental freedoms, free movement, internal and external trade, competition and competitiveness, the common currency and fiscal union, the environment, infrastructure, communications, research and higher education, foreign policy and defence are wholly or partly among the continental-size challenges.

Wise politicians at any level – local, regional, national or continental - do not meddle excessively in peoples' lives, but respect the principles of individual and societal freedom (subsidiarity).

In its current state of evolution, the European Union is the beginning of an answer to global challenges of more rational governance of fundamental issues affecting the security and prosperity of Europeans (and people globally).

Where deficient, the EU (or at least a willing part of it) should become able to protect our vital interests. The institutions need to robust (”energetic”) enough to do the job.

2) Pretensions of supremacy by Popes and autocratic rulers, as well as birthright privileges of nobility, have given way to the general acceptance of the sovereignty of the people (citizens). The road has often been long and hard.

We have instituted democratic government at the local, regional and national levels, but the European Union has only been adorned with certain democratic elements. It is basically still ”owned” by the member states, not its citizens, thus based on indirect democracy.

Twenty seven shards do not make a vase fit for purpose.

This lacuna needs to be filled by a system of representative democracy at federal level.

Naturally, representation and obligations become more complex when only some are mature enough to seek rational solutions, while others (vehemently) proclaim outdated and sterile concepts such as national sovereignty in order to cling to their powers, privileges or habits of thought.

Then, practical solutions have to found in order to allow peaceful progress for those who wish, without harming those who remain behind the curve. But the questions of powers and responsibilities (”no taxation without representation”, and vice versa) become quite complex, when different flotillas advance unevenly.

In the spirit of the Enlightenment – part of our common heritage - we need a combination of rational progress and tolerance.



Ralf Grahn