At the meeting in Belgrade, on 30 November 2021, under the presidency-in-office of the Republic of Serbia, the Energy Community Ministerial Council adopted the five key legislative acts stemming from the Clean Energy for all Europeans package and the Decarbonisation Roadmap. The Clean Energy for all Europeans package covers legislative acts in the area of energy efficiency, renewables, governance, electricity market design and electricity security of supply rules.
The new Renewables Directive will introduce new rules on support schemes and measures to tackle administrative barriers. This directive aims to strengthen the sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioliquids and extends it to biomass fuels. Also, for first time, an indicative target for increasing the use of renewables in heating and cooling sector is established. One of the keystones of this legislative act is also an introduction of the concept of renewable self-consumption and energy communities.
The Energy Efficiency Directive sets stronger measures for buildings renovation, as well as rules on metering and billing of thermal energy, particularly with respect to multi-apartment and multi-purpose buildings. Under the energy savings obligation, the parties will be required to achieve new annual energy savings of at least 0.8% in end-use sectors such as buildings, industry and transport.
The Governance Regulation establishes common rules for planning, reporting and monitoring on energy and climate policies and targets. In particular, the submission of the National Energy and Climate Plans are introduced is obligation of the contracting parties.
A new market-based electricity market design to facilitate a larger share of renewables will be put in place by the Electricity Directive and Risk Preparedness Regulation. One of the significant opportunities introduced by these legislative acts is also opportunities for consumers to participate in the market through generating electricity for either their own consumption and opportunities for customers to store it and to sell it back to the market.
In addition to this, the Ministry Council also adopted the Decarbonisation Roadmap which is introduced as a political document outlining the sequence of adoption, transposition and implementation of decarbonization-focused rules in order to put the contracting parties on a path towards achieving 2030 and mid-century decarbonization targets.
On this meeting, the plan is announced for the next Ministry Council 2022 to adopt renewables, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions targets for 2030, following the finalization of a study by the European Commission.
The information in this document does not constitute legal advice on any particular matter and is provided for general informational purposes only.
