Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

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The 24th European Energy Law Seminar is organised on 11-12 April 2011 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands . The seminar reviews the key developments in EU energy law. The agenda of the seminar includes this year the following topics: Government Interference with Energy Prices in a Liberalised Market; Latest EU Case Law; Trade in Energy and CO2 Emission Rights and the Role of Financial Markets; Cli mate Change and Energy Efficiency; The Draft Convention on International Energy Security; Recent Developments in the Upstream Petroleum Sector; Energy Infrastructure - New Developments. The European Energy Law Seminar is co-organised by the Dutch Energy Law Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Energirecht), the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (Nordisk Institutt for Sjørett) of the University of Oslo, and the Groningen Centre of Energy Law of the University of Groningen. References : programme, registration form and practical info available HERE .

The signature by 86 countries of the International Energy Forum (IEF) Charter took place yesterday, 22 February 2011 , in Riyadh, along the Extraordinary IEF Ministerial Meeting . It is the concretisation of the process started in March 2010 at the 12th IEF Ministerial Meeting, the so-called Cancun Ministerial Declaration that was endorsed by 66 countries (see Declaration here ). The Cancun Ministerial Declaration was mainly addressing two issues : the enhancement of the IEF framework to reinforce the producer-consumer dialogue , and the manner to reduce energy market volatility . The IEF Charter is the embodiment of the IEF framework called upon in the Cancun Ministerial Declaration. Energy market volatility is addressed within the IEA/IEF/OPEC cooperation programme, also referred to in the Cancun Ministerial Declaration. Among the activities of the cooperation programme count the organisation of joint events on physical and financial energy markets linkages that include energy m...

Faced to the political instabilities in Libya, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expresses itslef today as ready to make available to the market necessary volumes of oil in case of major disruption of supply at the condition that ' alternative suppliers cannot readily be made available via normal market mechanisms ' , which is not the case as of 22 February (see note IEA ). It is timely to review the role of the IEA and the related international mechanisms in situation of major supply disruption , the so-called Response System . The 28 IEA member parties have committed themselves in the Agreement on an International Energy Program ( I.E.P. Agreement , Chapters I-IV) to take joint measures in case of oil supply emergencies . The I.E.P. Agreement has among these objectives to maintain and improve systems for coping with oil supply disruptions. In case of oil supply disruption, the following procedure will apply to the IEA: The IEA Directorate of Energy Markets and Secur...

EurObserv'ER has just released its 10th edition of the "State of Renewable Energies in Europe" with consolidated data from the year 2009 . The report is available HERE . In its press release, EurObserv'ER notes that: It estimates th renewbale energy share of gross final energy consumption in 2009 to be 11.6% compared to 10.4% in 2008 . " This increase of 1.2 percentage points results in a renewable energy consumption contribution of 131.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2009 (up to 6.3 Mtoe) of a total of 1136.4 Mtoe in real terms. One important element of this result is that over half the growth in the share observed in 2009, despite impressive growth in some renewable sectors such as PV, cannot be attributed to the rise in renewably-sourced final energy consumption alone but instead steams from the plunge in total gross final energy consumption based on the drop in gross inland energy consumption ." " EurObserv'ER estimates that for ...

Today was published in the Official Journal of the European Union ( OJEU L 37, 11.02.2011, p.19 ), the Questionnaire on the implementation of Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide (CCS Directive) . Member States have the obligation to send such questionnaire to the European Commission every three years , and for the first time by 30 June 2011 (Article 27.1, CCS Directive). The Commission is responsible for drafting the questionnaire, based on the procedure requirements of Directive 91/692/EEC on standardising and rationalising reports on the implementation of certain directive relating to the environment. In the case of the CCS Directive, the Commission has chosen to draft a questionnaire as it " appears to be best suited to ensure that the information provided by the Member States in their reports is complete and comparable ." Such questionnaire will facilitate the work of the Commission, both in controling implementation of the CCS Directive b...

The Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (ESA) has adopted today a positive decision on the grant of a direct aid to Finnfjord AS in favour of the installation of energy recovery measures . The financing of the measure originates from the Norwegian Energy Fund . The latter has been previously validated by ESA in 2006 and prolonged once in 2010. The present aid amounts to NOK 175 million (EUR 21.3 million) and was notified to ESA in October 2010. It was subject to a detailed assessment under the State Aid Guidelines for Environmental Protection . While the text of the decision is not yet available, the press release from ESA sets the general reasoning of the decision as follows: " Finnfjord is one of Europe's leading producers of ferrosilicon. Finnfjord also produces microsilica which is a by-product of the ferrosilicon production process. The production process generates a lot of heat. Currently, this heat is not used for energy production or...

The Florence School of Regulation (European University Institute, Florence, Italy) is organising from 20 to 24 June 2011 a Summer School in EU Energy Law & Policy . The programme is designed to develop a sound knowledge of recent developments in EU energy law for staff of energy regulatory authorities, international organisations, utilities and law firms. The course will be provided by prominent academics, practitioners, former and current regulators or official of the European Commission. Audience limited to 40 participants! Day 1: EU energy law under the Lisbon treaty - Market coupling and internal market- Public law, private law and economic perspectives. Day 2 : Institutional Developments in energy - Boundaries between Competition and Regulatory Law - Boundaries between competition and sector specific regulation - ACER, ENTSOs & potential legal problems Day 3 : National experiences with the implementation of the third package - The infrastructure package and the new gas...

The Conclusions on Energy of the European Council of 4 February are available HERE . Morceaux choisis reproduced hereafter. The sustainable energy paradigm revisited " Safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy contributing to European competitiveness remains a priority for Europe ." "Operational Conclusions" on the completion of the internal market " The EU needs a fully functioning, interconnected and integrated internal energy market. Legislation on the internal energy market must therefore be speedily and fully implemented . ..." " The internal market should be completed by 2014 so as to allow gas and electricity to flow freely. This requires in particular that in cooperation with ACER national regulators and transmission systems operators step up their work on market coupling and guidelines and on network codes applicable across European Networks. Member States, in liaison with European standardization bodies and industry, are inv...

The European Commission adopted on 2 February a Communication on commodity markets and raw materials . Here are the documents. Analysis to come shortly. Communication from the Commission " Tackling the Challenges in Commodity Markets and on Raw Materials ," COM(2011)25 final; Press release, European Commission, IP/11/122 ; MEMO/11/62 , European Commission. Picture : (c) European Commission.

Heads of state and government of EU Member States will meet in Brussels on Friday 4 February for the European Council . It has been flagged that energy will be a core topic of the meeting (in addition to innovation and political situation in North Africa). The Hungarian Presidency has published its official agenda, and the European Commission has completed with its own views: Completing the single energy market : by creating "the missing links" between energy networks, with a clear focus on infrastructures; by removing remaining market barriers and better integrate energy markets; both security of energy supply and deployment of renewable energies depends on a well working internal energy market, stresses in addition the Commission. The Commission is indeed much more precise as regards its expections for the forthcoming European Council . In particular, it sets itself a deadline in 2014 for making the internal energy market a reality , which calls for enforcement contro...

In preparation of the European Council on Energy to be hold on Friday 4 February , the Norwegian government has published on 26 January its views on the agenda of the meeting in a document entitled " EU Energy Policy Debate: Norwegian Views " (available HERE ). The document recalls the key interests Norway has to defend in the development of EU energy policy, taking into account the particular position the country helds with regards to the internal market and the energy sector through the EEA Agreement. The points raised in the document are well known, but the approach of an official communication from the government prior to the European Council demonstrates a relatively new standpoint vis-à-vis the EU, almost like a reminder. These interests are: Natural gas : Norway is the second largest supplier of natural gas to the EU (20% of EU consumption) and natural gas will continue to form part of a sustainable energy mix, including for environmental protection and security of e...

Thank you for your interest in the Sustainable Energy Law Notebook that will continue reporting and analysing legal and policy developments in the field.