Energy Union
The Energy Union is the backbone of the European Union policy on energy and climate, as one of the ten priorities of the current European Commission.
The Energy Union aims to ensure that Europe has secure, affordable and sustainable energy. The EU’s Energy Union strategy was published in February 2015 as Communication on the “Framework strategy for a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy”.
It is comprised of 5 closely-related and mutually-reinforcing dimensions: energy security, a fully-integrated internal energy market, energy efficiency, climate action, and research and innovation. This Communication included the preparation of a first ever EU Heating and Cooling Strategy among its priority actions.
Euroheat & Power welcomed the Energy Union approach which recognises the crucial role of sustainable space heating and cooling in reducing the EU’s energy import bills, reinforcing energy security and cutting energy costs for households and businesses. We were pleased to see the text clearly stating that the heating and cooling sector in general, and district heating in particular, can and must play a key role in delivering the requirements of the European energy transition.
We have also already acknowledged the progress made with the Energy Union implementation, following the publication of the first State of the Energy Union in November 2015.
In November 2016, the Commission released its “Clean Energy For All Europeans” package, which includes key Energy Union legislative proposals with impact on the district energy sector: revisions of the Directives on Energy Efficiency (EED), Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) and Renewable Energy Sources (RED) including biomass sustainability rules, as well as a new Electricity Market Design and Energy Union governance framework. The Euroheat & Power statement following this publication is available here.