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.
The fifth meeting of the REDII Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass Fuels has been scheduled for 10 March. On the agenda is the approval of the implementing act for voluntary scheme standards. Given the numerous delays on this vote, it is uncertain whether this will be resolved at the next meeting. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
The ITRE Secretariat has confirmed that the deadline for tabling amendments to the Markus Pieper’s Draft Report is 15 March at 12:00 instead of the originally scheduled date of 8 March. Please note that the report still has not been publicly released. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
Bioenergy Europe has obtained a leak of the Draft Communication by the European Commission on a Joint European Action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy. The Secretariat is also finalising a statement on the current energy price crisis. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
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 here. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.
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.
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.
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.
The ITRE committee published its amendments to the draft opinion for the Emissions Trading System. A number of them refer to the alteration of a threshold to exclude installations with 95% of emissions from sustainable biomass from the EU ETS (130, 131, 132, 133). The ENVI committee presented its draft report last week. Bioenergy Europe has, in cooperation with Euroheat & Power, forwarded this week a proposition of amendments to key MEPs proposing to increase the exclusion threshold for biomass. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
On 2 February, Christan Holzleitner, the Head of Unit for Land Use and Finance for Innovation at DG CLIMA presented on the Commission’s proposal on the Communication on the Sustainable Carbon Cycles to the AGRI Committee at the European Parliament. Holzleitner’s presentation focused on how carbon farming could be promoted and how land managers could benefit from clear guidelines which would support and strengthen carbon markets. He said that the right certification system would be important for the system to work and that a public consultation would be opened for this. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
