EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

Prague, Czechia

sector. In both cases, it is essential to secure the desired and desirable objective via various sources. This could be done with the help of various financial assets or energy resources, while the objective could be, among other things, stability, security and/or environmental sustainability. In the positive definition, it is about ensuring the profit and functionality of the system with respect to the stated objectives (such as the welfare of society or environmental protection). Negatively, it is about preventing the loss of one’s own financial resources (or in the energy sector, avoiding a blackout and related social impacts). In the case of energy, it is therefore about ensuring a stable, secure, and long-term supply. Furthermore, – using the analogy of the hypothetical supply of water to a person in the desert – the basic supply must be regular (at a specified time and space) and secure (of a specified quality and quantity). In addition to the above, the role of energy system regulation is to ensure that consumers are protected. This is because of their possible exposure to energy poverty. There is an inverse relationship here: the lower a household’s income is, the higher share its energy costs may be because of its financial vulnerability of not being able to secure enough savings from which it would benefit in the long term (such as house insulation or less energy-intensive appliances). Furthermore, it is important to establish regulations that respect the Member States’ choice of their own energy sources, keeping in mind the environmental aspect. The similar approach is that to comply with legal environmental obligations, the Member States should maintain mutual solidarity and motivate private actors to contribute to the stability of the energy sector, ensure a long term, stable supply and, last but not least, avoid the negative environmental externalities. One concrete case in this respect might be wind farms (regardless of whether off-shore or on-shore), whose generated energy essentially has three possible uses (1. directly into the grid, 2. storage in batteries, and 3. conversion – e.g., power-to-gas or power to-hydrogen). These are one example for progressively ensuring decarbonisation throughout society, including in the energy sector. The basic approach in energy transformation is based on the fact that achieving decarbonisation targets is not a matter of “here and now”, but is rather based on long-term planning, including an interim period for e.g., natural gas. Article 16 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources currently regulates the organisation and duration of the permit-granting process, which must not exceed a period of two years for power plants, including all relevant procedures of competent authorities and under extraordinary circumstances, must not exceed a period of three years. However, as stipulated by Article 16(7) of the afore-mentioned directive:

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