Scope:

The Fitness Check assessed a total of 91 obligations in 31 different legal acts of the energy acquis.

Evaluation findings:

Overall, the Fitness Check found that the regulatory framework relating to planning, reporting and monitoring obligations within the EU energy acquis delivered mostly good results and the majority of existing obligations were considered effective and positively contributing towards achieving their objectives. At the same time, the Fitness Check identified a series of shortcomings.

The findings were less positive with regard to efficiency. Although overall efficiency was considered acceptable to good, high administrative burden of some obligations was found to be disproportionate. The relevance of existing obligations was generally considered good, with only a relatively small number of obligations found to be irrelevant or not providing information that was actually used. The evaluation also found that most of the information collected or produced through existing obligations would not be available from other sources and gave Member States and the Commission the possibility to measure progress at EU and national level and benefit from best practice examples.

Furthermore, the Fitness Check assessed that there was still potential for improving the planning, reporting and monitoring obligations with regards to coherence in particular. Inconsistencies and incoherence were identified both within the energy acquis as well as concerning the interlinkages with the climate acquis. The Fitness Check therefore recommended that out of the 91 reporting, planning and monitoring obligations within the energy acquis, 19 should be repealed, 18 should be integrated in the national plans and/or progress reports, 15 should stay separate in sectorial legislation but should be reflected in the plans and/or progress reports, while 39 obligations should stay separate from the plans/progress reports. In addition, for the 22 obligations stemming from the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR) and following earlier streamlining in the climate acquis the recommendation is to repeal 1 and integrate the 21 remaining obligations.

The analysis strongly suggested that a systematic integration of Member States' planning and reporting as well as of the Commission's monitoring was necessary to ensure coherence and enable Member States as well as the Commission to make full use of synergies and ensure consistency between various planning and reporting strands.

On this basis, the Fitness Check concluded that while the existing planning, reporting and monitoring system within the EU energy acquis has delivered overall good results, there was potential for significant improvement of the current EU energy acquis as regards the planning reporting and monitoring obligations, as well as concerning interlinkages with the EU climate acquis, thus significantly improving the current benefits/costs ratio. This improvement and development of the system would also help make the system fit for purpose under the new overarching framework of the Energy Union.

Estimated savings and benefits

Costs incurred by all 28 Member States resulting from all energy planning and reporting obligations are estimated at €20 million per year.

Due to the limited availability of data, benefits could not be quantified.

Fit for Future Platform

In 2022 the Fit for Future Platform adopted an opinion on the Regulation on the Governance of Energy Union and Climate Action (link), including the following suggestions:

Suggestion 1: Announce the revision of the Governance Regulation upon the completion of trilogue negotiations on the Fit for 55 package to ensure consistency in view of the new legal and political context and lessons learnt from the first iteration of National Energy and Climate Plans and for national Long-term Strategies

Suggestion 2: Propose that Member States set a national level, economy-wide climate neutrality target and reflect it in their national long-term strategy

Suggestion 3: Update the ‘Clean Planet for All Europeans’ long-term strategy to ensure it remains up to date and fit for future

Suggestion 4: Modernise the template for national energy and climate plans (NECPs) and national long-term strategies

Suggestion 5: Modernise the ‘energy efficiency’ dimension of the Governance Regulation in line with the recast of the Energy Efficiency Directive

Suggestion 6: Improve public participation in the elaboration of NECPs and national long term strategies

The Platform called broadly to modernise the framework to align with the European Green Deal and the new provisions brought in by the European Climate Law and the Fit for 55 package. It provided useful input into the Commission’s ongoing work on the evaluation of the Governance Regulation, providing supporting evidence to aspects that need to be strengthened in light of recent developments.

As suggested by the Platform, the Commission will look into the national energy and climate plans template annexed to the regulation, drawing lessons from previous versions and drawing on the Platform's suggestions. In December 2022, the Commission issued Guidance to help the Member States update their 2021-2030 national energy and climate plans.

Which objective(s) did the Commission pursue?

The proposal aimed to bring together the existing scattered planning and reporting obligations from the main pieces of EU legislation across energy, climate and other Energy Union related policy areas and thereby achieve a major simplification of obligations.

It proposed to reduce, align and update such requirements, and to remove existing duplications. In total, the proposal integrated, streamlined or repealed more than 50 existing individual planning, reporting and monitoring obligations of the energy and climate acquis (integrating 31 and deleting 23). The streamlined political Governance process between the Commission and Member States, with close involvement of other EU institutions, is meant to align frequency and timing of obligations, significantly enhance transparency and cooperation and thereby bring additional benefits in terms of reducing administrative burden in the energy and climate change fields.

The proposal furthermore aimed at setting out the necessary legislative foundation for a reliable and transparent Governance system that ensures the objectives and targets of the Energy Union through complementary, coherent and ambitious efforts by the Union and its Member States, while promoting the Union's better regulation principles.

Estimated savings and benefits

The legislative proposal on the Governance of the Energy Union would streamline reporting by a single legislative act, which is estimated to generate cost savings of €3.4 million.

In addition, it was estimated to bring significant benefits to Member States, citizens and business through more stable policy frameworks and better informed policies across the five dimensions of the Energy Union. The Governance Regulation was expected to generate substantial benefits in terms of a timely and more efficient achievement of the Energy Union objectives, promoting investor certainty and synchronising with the Paris Climate Agreement.

The transition towards a more secure and sustainable energy system was estimated to require some €200 billion annual investments in the next decade and the Energy Union Governance would allow for the necessary certainty and predictability to facilitate such investments and make them more efficient.

Outcome of legislative procedure

Some of the main elements in the final text of the Regulation refer to:

• Calendar for the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPS): a 10-year planning cycle as originally proposed by the Commission was agreed, with a reinforced mid-term update of the NECPs. The NECP submission dates as proposed by the Commission, which are aligned with Paris Agreement cycles, are kept. This is an important simplification aspect as the number of reporting flows for Member States has been reduced.

• Timing for Commission recommendations: a deadline was introduced for the Commission's recommendation which should be issued 6 months before the deadline for the final plans to allow sufficient time for the resubmission.

• Long-Term strategies (LTS): Member States' first long-term strategies are due by 1 January 2020, with a voluntary update five years later, and a non-binding annex on the content of the LTS to promote coherence.

• Reporting: the first integrated biennial report was postponed to 2023 (with the deletion of the 2021 report). A new article 27 on the specific assessment of the 2020 renewables and energy efficiency target is introduced. The streamlining of energy and climate reporting will reduce the administrative burden for the Member States and will make the Commission assessment more efficient.

• Union renewable energy financing mechanism: A new dedicated article (Article 33) introduces the financing mechanism formed by Member States contributions and additional sources, such as EU funds and private sector contributions. The Commission has an obligation to establish such platform by 1 January 2021. The platform will simplify the redirection of funding towards renewable energy projects in case of need.

• Political monitoring: A new article 45 strengthens the role of the Council and the Parliament in monitoring the progress achieved by the Energy Union.

• Committees: Although the Commission proposed to have a single Committee, the co-legislators agreed on having two separate Committees (i.e. Energy Union and Climate Change Committees), with clear delineation of competences.

Implementation reported by Member States

The Commission and the Member States have started to implement the provisions of the Governance Regulation. In particular, all draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), which were due by 31 December 2018, have been notified to the Commission.

The Commission has assessed all draft NECPs and issued recommendations on the draft plans in June 2019.

Member States have also submitted the final NECPs by 31 December 2019.

The Commission assessment of individual NECPs has been published on 14 October 2020 together with the State of the Energy Union report.

Implementation by Commission

The Commission has established the Energy Union Committee, which along with the Climate Change Committee is in charge of the implementation of the Governance of the Energy Union. Since the first meeting in May 2020, the Committee has established its rules of procedure, set up two working groups and adopted the above mentioned implementing act on the Union renewable energy financing mechanism.

The Commission also adopted the following implementing and delegated acts linked to the implementation of the governance regulation:

• an implementing act on the structure, format, submission processes and review of information reported in the climate field. This reporting will generate information notably for the EU to be able to be compliant with the transparency provisions of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. Work is also ongoing on the set-up of the dedicated web tool for reporting, the e-Platform.

• The implementing act on the Union renewable energy financing mechanism. This support mechanism is foreseen in the Governance Regulation among the tools to support the achievement of the EU renewable energy target, and contributes to the enabling framework for renewable energy deployment.

The establishment of a single template streamlining and simplifying various energy and climate reporting streams will further reduce the administrative burden for the Member States and will make the Commission assessment more efficient.

Every year the European Commission prepares and publishes in October a State of the Energy Union report pursuant to the Governance Regulation.