The European Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Cyprus and another seven member states, for not having transposed new rules accelerating permitting procedures for renewable energy projects into their national legislation. The reasoned opinion was sent as part of the Commission’s regular infringements package for February.
A reasoned opinion is the last step in an infringement procedure, which deals with cases of member states breaking EU law. If a member state does not respond or make the necessary changes within two months from having received a reasoned opinion, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
More specifically, as stated in a press release, the European Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to Cyprus (INFR(2024)0213), Bulgaria, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden for not having transposed into national law EU rules accelerating permitting procedures for renewable energy projects set out in Directive (EU) 2023/2413. The directive amends the Renewable Energy Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/2001).
The amended Directive provides new rules to simplify and shorten permitting procedures both for renewable energy projects and for the infrastructure projects which are necessary to integrate the additional capacity into the electricity system.
The new rules include clear time limits for permit-granting procedures targeted to specific technologies or types of projects. In addition, it introduces the presumption that renewable energy projects, storage and the related grid infrastructure are of overriding public interest.
There is also an obligation for the Member States to design “renewable acceleration areas” where projects can benefit from shorter deadlines for permits given the low environmental impacts.
The deadline to transpose these provisions into national law was July 1st, 2024. In September 2024, the Commission sent letters of formal notice to 26 Member States for failing to fully transpose the Directive into national law.
After having examined their replies, the Commission decided to issue reasoned opinions to Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Slovakia and Sweden for failing to notify transposition measures, and to Bulgaria, France and the Netherlands for failing to provide sufficiently clear and precise information on how their transposition measures transpose each of the Directive’s provisions.
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Source: CNA
