On February 27, 2017 EU energy minister’s came together to support the third version of the so called Winterpackage:  a one meter stack of energy dossiers proposed by the EU Commission on November 30, 2016 While the package received unanimous support, the difficulty will lie in the different capabilities at national and regional levels.

Current head of the Maltese presidency, Konrad Mizzi, stated at the press conference: “We are speeding up our work on the Gas Security of Supply legislation, which will ensure gas availability for all Member Atates, as well as energy efficiency labelling legislation, which will enable consumers to make informed choices when buying a product,”

Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action & Energy, suggested a market-based approach to renewables, meaning that the needs of the consumers should be adequately taken into account.

The Council of the European Union said it would work with the Commission to arrange three-way institutional talks designed at brokering an agreement on the draft EU legislation. See EHA’s review of the package here. the EHA is also following developments in the  EU Parliament closely as the rapporteurs of the main dossiers have been approved.

Photo: Current (green) and planned Power to gas plants (orange) in Europe.