The European Commission is to report by 2017 if governments should be required to notify it of planned gas, oil and coal extraction projects and small renewable energy projects under amended EU rules adopted late Thursday by EU ministers acting in the EU Council.
The EU regulation on notifying the EC of EU energy infrastructure projects requires governments to provide the EC with information on oil refining, electricity and biofuel production, downstream oil, gas and carbon dioxide pipelines and storage, LNG terminals, electricity transmission lines and carbon capture and storage projects.
"The availability of regular and up-to-date data and information will enable the commission to make comparisons and evaluations, or to propose relevant measures, in particular concerning the future energy supply/demand balance," the EU Council's press office said.
National governments have to inform the EC every two years of energy projects where building or decommissioning has started, or where a final investment decision has been taken. The governments and EC are required to keep any commercially-sensitive data confidential.
The EC has to report by December 31, 2016 on whether the scope should be extended to include oil, gas and coal extraction projects, compressed natural gas terminals and new types of electricity storage, the text showed.
The EC will also look at whether to lower the thresholds for reporting on renewable energy installations. These thresholds are currently 20 MW for biomass, wind, solar thermal and geothermal, 30 GW for hydropower and 10 MW for photovoltaics. The regulation will become binding directly on all 28 EU countries 20 days after being published in the EU's Official Journal.
