Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

The revision of the TEN-E Regulation was meant to addresses the new policy ambition of the European Green Deal. The impact assessment examined how a revised TEN-E Regulation can facilitate the development of sufficient energy infrastructures to enable delivering on the EU’s energy and climate objectives by identifying the necessary projects and investments, developing an integrated infrastructure planning, and ensuring timely implementation of projects of common interest.

This initiative also took into account simplification and burden reduction opportunities. The streamlining of the PCI selection procedure would result in a reduction of administrative burdens and compliance costs for project promotors. Moreover, the proposal considered to what extent monitoring and reporting obligations could be reduced or streamlined in order to reduce administrative costs for affected stakeholders. It also analysed if permitting procedures could be simplified to reduce administrative burden.

Estimated savings and benefits

The Commission’s proposal to revise the TEN-E Regulation aimed at reducing reporting obligations by finding synergies between the competent authorities and the project promoters’ reporting. To safeguard the transparency and access of the Regional Groups to the most updated project implementation status whilst achieving recurrent cost savings, the annual report of the competent authorities would be integrated into the report of the project promoters. Second, ACER monitoring obligations would be reduced to biennial reporting in time for the assessment of the new PCI candidates generating efficiency gains of approximately 20% of ACER’s workload on reporting, equivalent to annual savings of EUR 60 000 (or 0.4 FTE per year). Third, the revised TEN-E Regulation would allow the pre-consultation ahead of the launch of permitting procedure for PCIs to become optional, if already covered by national rules under the same or higher standards as in the TEN-E Regulation. Public participation and engagement with local communities and stakeholders affected by the construction of a PCI will be safeguarded whilst avoiding obligations that add to existing national procedures. Fourth and last, the proposal recommended a simplified inclusion of existing PCIs in the Ten-Year Network Development Plans (TYNDPs), where projects on the Union list of PCIs having already provided necessary administrative and technical data to the TYNDP process can benefit from automatic inclusion in the subsequent plans provided the data remained unchanged.

No direct impacts in terms of compliance or administrative costs for SMEs were identified. SMEs could benefit from increased competitiveness in those technology areas that are included or strengthened in the future TEN-E framework (e.g. offshore renewable energy industry, digital services, or hydrogen).

Outcome of Legislative Procedure

Some of the main elements in the political agreement:

• end support for new natural gas and oil projects and introduce mandatory sustainability criteria for all projects;

• simplify and accelerate permitting and authorisation procedures, notably by creating a unique point of contact per project for permitting and authorisation;

• allow during a transitional period until 31 December 2029, for dedicated hydrogen assets converted from natural gas to be used to transport or store a pre-defined blend of hydrogen with natural gas or biomethane. Eligibility for EU financial assistance for such projects will end on 31 December 2027.

• allow for projects no longer on the list of projects of common interest, but for which an application file has been accepted for examination by the competent authority, to maintain their rights and obligations in terms of faster permitting;

• in the case of Cyprus and Malta, that are still not interconnected to the trans-European gas network, allow for one interconnection per Member State under development or planning that has been granted the Project of Common Interest status and is necessary to secure permanent interconnection of Cyprus and Malta to the trans-European gas network;

• add an explicit reference to article 136 of the EU financial regulation that enumerates the situations where a person or entity shall be excluded from being selected for receiving EU financing, such as fraud, corruption or conduct related to criminal organisations;

• include in the scope of the Regulation certain types of electrolysers that account for at least 50 MW capacity, provided by a single electrolyser or by a set of electrolysers that form a single, coordinated project and that contribute to sustainability. Electrolysers will not be eligible for financing.

• emphasise the role of energy from renewable sources regarding all assets, including smart gas grids;

• create a possibility for non-binding cooperation in the field of offshore grid planning;

• strengthen the governance process for TEN-E with a stronger role for relevant stakeholders;

• include in the scope of the Regulation projects of mutual interest, where they are sustainable and demonstrate benefits at EU-level.

The Commmsion will have to publish a report on the implementation of the projects on the Union list by 30 June 2027 and carry out a review of the Regulation.