Following intensive work through PES amendments both at the level of the ENVE Commission and the CoR plenary session, it was possible to anchor key positions of the PES Group in the opinions referring to the European Commission's so-called 'Winter Package'.
In particular, the opinion on Energy Union governance and clean energy (by Bruno Hranić, EPP, Croatia) has been improved to bring it in line with the very ambitious draft report of EP member Claude Turmes (Greens/Luxembourg), which assigns an important role to local and regional authorities in delivering a sustainable energy future. The opinion now also calls for the establishment of multilevel energy dialogue platforms to bring local and regional authorities as well as other local stakeholders and businesses together with the general public to prepare and promote the energy transition.
In the opinion on Energy efficiency and buildings (by Michiel Rijsberman, ALDE, Netherlands), the PES managed to insert a crucial paragraph on the need to fight energy poverty by developing a common EU level definition and setting out clear, concrete measures to help vulnerable consumers.
Last but not least, in the opinion on Renewable energy and the internal energy market in electricity (by Daiva Matoniene, ECR, Lithuania), the PES managed to push through, against the resistance of the rapporteur and large parts of the EPP and ECR groups, a call for more ambitious binding national level targets on renewable energy. These are necessary to meet the commitments EU member states have entered into by signing the Paris climate agreement. The proposal to abolish a maximum emission limit of 550gr CO2 /kwh for generation capacity to be included in the so-called capacity mechanism was rejected by a majority led by the PES. Finally, also this opinion now contains a clear statement, introduced by the PES, on the need to tackle energy poverty at EU level.
