EU countries agree that part of the hundreds of billions for the European energy transition must come from the rural fund of the Common Agricultural Policy. With the Repower project of around 200 billion euros, the EU aims within a few years to no longer be dependent on Russian energy.
This transition aims for significant energy savings, the construction of many more solar and wind parks, purchasing from other gas and oil countries, and a renewed restart of biogas production. The latter mainly involves new agricultural activities.
The European Commission and the finance ministers are calling for 12.5% of the second pillar of the CAP fund for this purpose, much to the dissatisfaction of the agri-committee of the European Parliament. That committee convened Monday evening in Strasbourg in an extraordinary session and unanimously opposed the proposed Repower financing.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the finance ministers reached an agreement on the entire Repower financing. It appeared that most EU countries had issues mainly with the amount of 20 billion euros that the European Commission wants to obtain from the accelerated sale of ETS emission allowances. Partly on the proposal of Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag (D66), a different approach has been found.
However, the idea of using the European Innovation Fund is rejected by the European Parliament, which prefers that the 20 billion euros come from the regular stock of emission allowances.
"We strongly disagree with taking most of the money from the Innovation Fund because we need that money to support the industrial transition," says German MEP Peter Liese, who is the lead negotiator on the ETS reform. He also said that countries like France and the Netherlands stood with the Parliament.
Last week, the four largest political groups in Parliament – the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the left-wing Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberal Renew Europe, and the Greens – presented a joint position on the financing of Repower, including the 12.5% from the rural fund. This now paves the way for trilogue negotiations between the Commission, ministers, and the European Parliament.