At their meeting in Brussels, EU Energy Ministers today adopted Council conclusions on expanding a sustainable grid infrastructure. State Secretary Sven Giegold represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the meeting. All EU Member States agree that efforts to ensure better coordination on developing, accelerating and funding grid infrastructure expansion across Europe must be intensified.

Said State Secretary Sven Giegold said: We need lower energy prices throughout the whole of Europe for both consumers and our industries. This is crucial if we want to stay competitive in the future. Three factors play into this: a faster expansion of renewable energy, a more flexible electricity demand in order to use periods where cheap wind and solar energy are available, and an ambitious expansion of renewable energy throughout all of Europe. Only by expanding our grids can we guarantee that cheap wind energy from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and affordable solar energy from southern Europe reach European industries and households. The expansion of the power grid is a decisive element in securing Europe’s competitiveness on global markets. A stronger European grid expansion must at the same time ensure that necessary investments for grid expansion do not create an excessive burden for industry and private households.

EU Energy Ministers also spoke about the implementation and further development of the Green Deal. By signing the Green Deal, and the Fit-for-55 package in particular, the EU has agreed historic measures to set the course for an efficient implementation of the energy and climate targets for 2030 without unnecessary red tape and for creating a reliable framework for investments.

State Secretary Sven Giegold said: In the next EU legislative term, it will be of vital importance to further develop the Green Deal. In order to make our industry more competitive, we need a clear path towards the green transition. The Green Deal must therefore be continued and further developed as a growth and innovation agenda in the green technologies sector and as a strategy to promote economic resilience and strategic sovereignty.

By introducing the right to repair, Member States have also formally adopted a further Green Deal dossier that is to promote the repair and reuse of useful goods and therefore also aims at promoting sustainable consumption and avoiding waste.

EU Energy ministers also agreed that the EU and EURATOM would withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Germany already quit last year. The Treaty – even the modernisation draft – has proven to be not fit for the future.

In addition, the Energy ministers have stressed the progress made by Europe at reducing its dependency on Russian energy imports. It is however clear that further steps are necessary. Many Member States, advocated for the creation of a new high level initiative, based on a joint call by the Czech Republic and Germany. Together, the group is to meet regularly to systematically identify measures that could help Member States to further reduce their dependency on Russian imports and also help each other if necessary. They stressed that sustainable progress is needed in order for the Commission to play a strong role in this initiative.

In addition, Germany, Austria dn Italy signed a Joint Declaration of Intent (JDOI) for the development of the SoutH2 Corridor. The SoutH2 Corridor is to convert the existing gas pipeline infrastructure for the transportation of hydrogen and thus to create affordable routes for pumping green hydrogen to southern Germany. In this Declaration, participating countries stress the strategic importance of the SoutH2 Corridor as being one of the five large-scale pipelines for hydrogen imports that will facilitate the import of 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030. Further information can be found here.

Another important cooperation paper was agreed on the sidelines of the Franco-German Council of Ministers as early as Tuesday. In this paper France and Germany have decided to intensify their cooperation on the important subject of flexibility of demand in the grid system and to identify joint measures they can take. Further information (in German) can be found here.