The European Commission’s “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package of proposals is an important step towards a properly functioning internal market for electricity, this being an objective that EURACOAL fully supports. However, the good progress made to date might be jeopardised if capacity mechanisms are subject to an emission performance standard.

• The proposal is diametrically opposite to the EU’s objective of creating a competitive, technology-neutral, non-discriminatory internal electricity market.
• It would favour investment in expensive, new gas-fired power stations to replace the existing coal stations that already balance renewables and ensure reliable power.
• With more expensive, imported gas, electricity supply would become more expensive and less secure.
• The electricity sector would be subject to a pointless double regulation, without actually reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: the sector’s emissions are already capped by the cost-efficient EU emissions trading system (ETS) to meet politically agreed targets.
• EU member states would lose their sovereign right to determine their own energy mixes (Art.194 TFEU).

The European Commission’s proposal to deny access to capacity markets by setting an emission performance standard of 550 gCO₂/kWh should be rejected.

Read EURACOAL’s position here and refer also to the similar positions of EURELECTRIC, representing power utilities, ENTSO-E, representing transmission system operators, CEER, representing regulators, EFET, representing energy traders, and BusinessEurope.