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Energy 2022

2022 Annual Report on monitoring the application of EU law - Infringement cases by policy area

Infringement cases open at year-end 2018 - 2022

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By clicking on the multi-level chart, you can consult, for 2022, the number of infringement cases open at the year-end per policy sector and per type of infringement.

Compliance promotion activities in 2022

Guidelines on how to implement EU law

In July 2022, the Commission published a study on key performance indicators (KPIs) for monitoring implementation of national programmes on safe and long-term management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom requires Member States to include such KPIs in their national programmes to monitor progress towards implementation. The study should serve as a guideline for the Member States to implement their obligations under the Directive.

Meetings with Member States

  • Energy Union Committee: the Committee is composed of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by the Commission. During 2022, several meetings of the Committee and its working groups were held to discuss the preparation of the update of the integrated national energy and climate plans and progress reports and an implementing act on the integrated national energy and climate progress reports was adopted.
  • Committee related to certain elements of the Renewable Energy Directive  and Concerted Action: the Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass fuels is composed of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by the Commission. During 2022, several meetings were held and two implementing acts were adopted.
    The Concerted Action on the Renewable Energy Directive (CA-RES) encourages dialogue between Member States on the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive. It brings together national authorities in charge of preparing the technical, legal and administrative framework for the implementation of this Directive with seven thematic groups covering its main aspects. It also provides the Commission with a platform to reach out to Member States experts, communicate on upcoming events and receive feedback on specific issues. CA-RES held two plenary meetings in 2022.
  • Energy Efficiency Directive Committee and Concerted Action: the Energy Efficiency Directive Committee is composed of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by the Commission. During 2022, three meetings were held in order to discuss and promote common understanding of the issues pertaining to the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).
    The Concerted Action of the Energy Efficiency Directive, apart from complementing the work of the EED Committee, encourages the dialogue between Member States to improve and strengthen Member State’s implementation of the EED. In this context, during 2022, it organised two-day meetings twice (Lisbon and Stockholm) and a series of technical workshops to work on common approaches for the effective implementation of the EED.
    Both committees discussed specific issues related to the transposition of the 2018 amending EED and provided feedback on: how assessment of transposition is carried out, the latest state of play on the transposition of the Directive by Member States, and guidance on how to proceed in infringement cases, highlighting for example, the use of the correlation table. These meetings also provided the opportunity for Member States to ask any other queries on implementation of the Directive, which could be then taken forward on a technical level, in bilateral meetings with the Member State concerned.
  • Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) Directive Committee and Concerted Action (CA EPBD): the EPB Committee, composed of Member State representatives and the Commission, held two meetings in 2022, in particular to share best practices. In the meeting held on 20 June 2022, the Commission, for example, provided the state of play on enforcement of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), mainly on the completeness of transposition, and reiterated its availability to provide Member States with further technical and legal help bilaterally, if needed.

    The CA EPBD, composed of national authorities in charge of preparing the technical, legal and administrative framework for the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Commission, held one plenary meeting (17-18 May 2022 in Athens) and one study visit (15-16 September 2022 in Amsterdam) to enhance the sharing of information and experiences from national adoption and implementation of the EPBD.
  • European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group: this expert advisory group, composed by Member State representatives, national regulatory authorities and the Commission, held several meetings in 2022 to promote a common understanding in the areas of nuclear safety and radioactive waste management.
  • Group of health experts established under Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty brings together radiation protection and public health experts from Member States, and its main role is to advise the European Commission when drawing up legislation concerning the protection of workers, patients and members of the public against dangers arising from ionising radiation.
    In 2022, the group of experts continued promoting the implementation of Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom in Member States, by supporting the Commission in organising scientific seminars, preparing reports and guidance documents on radiation protection and by proactively identifying emerging issues and following new developments in the area.
  • Electricity Coordination Group: this expert group, composed of Member States national regulatory authorities, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulation and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, is consulted on different tasks and reports required as part of the implementation of the Risk Preparedness Regulation. The Commission also discusses with Member States about the best practices and challenges in the implementation of the Regulation.
  • Gas Coordination Group: this expert advisory group, composed of Member States’ representatives, EU associations in gas fields and the Commission, held many meetings in 2022 to strengthen the coordination of security of gas supply measures in order to manage as best as possible the current energy crises and reinforce the EU preparedness in case of Union or regional emergency, i.e. partial or full gas disruption.

Furthermore, in several areas of implementation of the EU energy laws, the Commission services had many bilateral technical meetings with Member States.

Package meetings

Package meetings are meetings between the Commission and a Member State to discuss implementation issues and infringement cases in a given policy area. They can be held before the Commission has detected a breach of EU law or concern existing infringement cases of the Member State. Package meetings can be an efficient tool to deal with challenges a Member State may face in a policy area, across different acts of EU legislation.

In 2022, the Commission held eight package meetings with Member States in the policy area of Energy, namely with Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Poland, Romania and Sweden. In several areas of implementation of the EU energy acquis, the Commission services had many bilateral technical meetings with Member States.

Other compliance promotion tools

  • In 2022, the e-platform, as established under Article 28 of the Governance Regulation, was substantially further developed to facilitate Member States reporting on the 2020 renewable energy and energy efficiency targets, and to prepare for the first ever integrated climate and energy progress reporting in 2023. This development both reduces the administrative burden for Member States reporting and the Commission’s subsequent assessing, and facilitates better reuse and public access to information.
  • Important role of the procedure laid down in Article 33 of the Euratom Treaty, whereby Member States notify to the Commission their draft legislation in the areas of nuclear safety, radiation protection and radioactive waste and spent fuel management, and the Commission may make recommendations. This constitutes an efficient infringement prevention tool for Euratom Directives, as Member States very often amend their draft legislation in line with the Commission services comments before formally adopting it.
  • In the context of the United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union, the Commission has been scrutinising the Member States’ existing energy agreements with the United Kingdom under Decision (EU) 2017/684 in terms of their compliance with the Union acquis. Pursuant to this Decision, Member States have the possibility or an obligation, depending on the agreement type, to submit draft agreements to the Commission for their opinion. In early 2022, the Commission engaged with Denmark, pursuant to their request, concerning a draft memorandum of understanding on oil stockholding with the United Kingdom. Thanks to the early consultation, the appropriate legal form was used by Denmark (a non-binding, as opposed to a binding, instrument), and Denmark applied the required drafting technique. As a result, the Commission was able to issue subsequently a positive decision that the instrument in question complied with the Union acquis.

Follow-up given to petitions

On Energy, the Commission handled eight petitions regarding the implementation of EU rules in different areas such as renewable energy, electricity and gas, energy efficiency, energy labelling and Euratom basic safety standards.

  • One petition (Petition 0073/2022) is related to an ongoing EU Pilot dialogue open with the Polish authorities as regards energy labelling.
  • On the topics raised by two petitions (Petition 0229/2020 and Petition 1361/2021), verification missions under Article 35 of the Euratom Treaty were carried out. The first was to check the operation and efficiency of the facilities for monitoring the level of radioactivity near the French Orano Malvési site. The verifications have been carried out, final report has been adopted : (Verifications of radiation monitoring in EU countries). The facilities monitored have been found adequate. The second was to check the operation and efficiency of the facilities for monitoring the level of radioactivity in drinking water and ground water in Haskovo (Bulgaria). The inspection mission was carried out in December 2022 and the technical report should be adopted in 2023.
  • For the remaining petitions that were not followed up, no breach of EU law could be identified.

Outlook for 2023

In 2023, the Commission will continue important enforcement work in the policy area of Energy. In particular, the Commission services in the field of Energy will focus on the following:

  • In 2023, the emphasis in terms of enforcement and infringements will be to make sure that all the Member States have fully transposed the provisions of the Directives and have complied with their obligations under the Regulations.
  • The need to concentrate is acute in the cases of the 2018 Energy Efficiency Directive and the 2018 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, as the Commission needs to ensure their full transposition and correct implementation before the recast proposals, currently under negotiation, are agreed and enter into force. These two Directives, even though their transposition deadline was in 2020, have not been fully transposed yet by some Member States.
  • Ensuring full transposition of the 2018 Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) is also key, given the current energy crisis and the need to ramp up the deployment and use of renewable energy. At the end of 2022, while the transposition deadline was in July 2021, only 11 Member States had self-declared full transposition, two Member States had not notified any transposition at all, and the remaining 14 declared only partial transposition.
  • The smooth functioning of the Union’s internal energy market remains paramount, and therefore checking the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and Directive (EU) 2019/692 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas, as well as ensuring the correct implementation of Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 on security of gas supply is essential.
  • Regarding security of supply, both Regulation (EU) 2019/941 on risk-preparedness in the electricity sector and Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 on security of gas supply oblige the Member States to notify information to the Commission by certain deadlines, for example their draft risk-preparedness plans, and in the current crisis situation, it is crucial they do prepare such plans and notify them timely.
  • The Commission will also monitor and assist Member States in implementing the emergency measures adopted by the Union legislature in 2022 as a response to the energy crisis caused by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine. These measures include Regulation (EU) 2022/1032 on gas storage, Regulation (EU) 2022/1369 on coordinated demand reduction measures for gas, Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices, Regulation (EU) 2022/2576 enhancing solidarity through better coordination of gas purchases, reliable price benchmarks and exchanges of gas across borders, Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 laying down a framework to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and Regulation (EU) 2022/2578 establishing a market correction mechanism to protect Union citizens and the economy against excessively high energy prices.
  • Regarding Euratom legislation, checking the correct transposition of Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom (Basic Safety Standards Directive) continues to be a priority, as well as Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom (Radioactive Waste Directive).
  • The Commission will continue to provide input to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), whether in the context of preliminary ruling requests from national courts, infringement actions taken by the Commission, or actions for annulment against EU acts. The Commission will also continue to ensure the judgments are properly followed up, in particular the CJEU’s ruling in Case C-718/18 Commission v Germany concerning the powers and independence of the National Regulatory Authorities, and its ruling in Case C-744/19 Commission v Italy for incomplete transposition of the Basic Safety Standard Directive.
  • Finally, in 2023, attention will be paid to the incorporation of the Commission’s legislation in the European Economic Area. As of today, the 2018 Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union, the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive, the 2018 Energy Efficiency Directive, the 2018 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the 2018 Renewable Energy Directive as well as the 2019 Directive on common rules for the internal market for electricity are all still not incorporated in the EEA Agreement. The Commission expects that EEA countries – which enjoy full access to the Union’s single market – make progress on all these in 2023 and will work to ensure their correct transposition.
  • Attention will also be paid to the continuous incorporation of Energy legislation into the Energy Community, while noting that progress to timely incorporate the Union acquis is overall positive.