- Regulated energy prices also for SMEs
- BECCS: negative emissions and the dispute over the role of biomass
- Government support for NATO accession
- New cybersecurity rules for companies and government agencies
- Federal government rejects legal act on taxonomy
- Opinion: Conference on the Future of Europe
- New press officer in the Commission representation
The Conference on the Future of Europe was supposed to be a driving force for European unification. However, there is still strong resistance to treaty changes. But the conditions for reform are better than they have been for a long time, according to Thu Nguyen and Nils Redeker of the Jacques Delors Centre. In their Opinion, they show the German government ways in which it could use the impetus for stronger security policy cooperation and better financial resources for the EU.
You can see Redeker and Nguyen at our digital conference Europe.Decisions on Wednesday. On the topic “Putin’s war – Europe’s options for politics, business & science”, we present 30 high-level speakers in 150 minutes in cooperation with the Jacques Delors Centre. Don’t miss the opportunity to sign up!
As of today, the EU’s current agenda will once again be Birgit Schmeitzner‘s central topic. As the new head of the press office of the Commission’s representation in Germany, she will translate the agency’s policies for the media. In her Profile, Ulrike Christl summarizes the former correspondent’s most important past engagements – from assignments in Moscow to postings in Brussels.
In Brussels, climate neutrality will be the focus of the Environment Committee’s deliberations tomorrow. However, net zero can only be achieved if CO2 is not only avoided but also removed from the atmosphere. One of the most frequently mentioned but also most controversial solutions is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Timo Landenberger analyzes what scientists and parliament think of the technology.
Manuel Berkel
Feature
Regulated energy prices also for SMEs
The new proposals on electricity prices would go even further than plans made in March. “A temporary extension of the scope of regulated retail prices could be envisaged to cover also small and medium-sized enterprises,” says a draft communication on energy prices, which the Commission plans to present with the REPowerEU package on Wednesday.
The first communication on REPowerEU in March already contained the Commission’s interpretation of the Internal Electricity Market Directive. Article 5 allows state-regulated prices in certain cases for household customers and under even narrower conditions for micro-enterprises. The extension now proposed to small and medium-sized enterprises would greatly expand the group of beneficiaries. “This extension would have to be limited in terms of quantities covered to not lead to an increase in consumption,” the Commission’s draft therefore says.
The paper also looks at proposals for longer-term reform of the electricity markets. Household customers have recently had to contend with the bankruptcy of a whole series of suppliers who speculated on persistently low electricity prices and had not hedged their risks.
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