The agreement to close a consensual text on the reform of the electricity market was not on the formal agenda of the summit of European energy ministers held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Valladolid, but it was behind the scenes.
On July 19, the text agreed upon by the MEPs will be voted on in the European Parliament, so also reaching an agreement between countries would have accelerated the reform process. But it could not be.
In fact, the meeting in Valladolid has served to stage the great gap that is opening up between the countries in favor of promoting renewables, led by Germany, and the defenders of nuclear energy grouped around France in the Nuclear Alliance. The Spanish minister of the branch and host of the meeting confirmed this Wednesday that there is no date to start the reform although the objective continues to be to close it before the end of the year.
Teresa Ribera confirmed at a press conference that they are working to have an agreement in which all countries are represented as soon as possible even if they all have to give in. “We could have a qualified majority, but we prefer not to leave certain countries in the minority and for all countries to participate,” she said.
In any case, the Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, made the position of the community executive clear by ensuring that at the G-20 summit of energy ministers to be held next week in India, the EU is going to propose a global target to triple the global rate of renewable energy deployment by 2030 on a voluntary basis, as well as double the rate of energy efficiency improvements in this decade compared to the previous one.
Kadri Simson also announced a high-level event in early September to bring together all stakeholders from the power supply, distribution and transmission chain to work on production capacity.
