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Energy and environmental priorities of the Maltese presidency of the Council of the EU



Malta has taken over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) for the next six months (1 January-30 June 2017). It is now time to take a look at its energy and environmental policy priorities, and what will be on its agenda until the summer.

The programme of the Maltese presidency is based on both joint and more singular interests. A new system has been established after the 2009 Lisbon Treaty to run the presidency work in groups of three Member States or "trios", covering a period of 18 months, complemented by a more detailed programme for the 6-month presidency of each Member State. This post reflects this dynamic, and starts with a rapid review of the Trio-programme, then a review of the Maltese presidency programme, before ending by a personal analysis .

1. The 18-month programme of the Trio (The Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta)

  • Policy priorities indirectly impacting energy and the environment
Focusing on "robust and sustainable recovery", the Trio programme contains several references to the new patterns of economic growth and sustainaibility around the circular economy package. The latter carries an ambitious and a fundamental vision for the future of the management of our resources, including waste, water, air and biodiversity. Setting the conditions for a resource-efficient economy is a demanding but crucial task. Negotiating a consistent and balanced legislative package around these ambitions will be a test for the EU institutions.

Deepening the internal market remains the backbone of the EU integration project. It covers the EU energy policy, and is completed by dedicated measures as part of the energy union package. Among common internal market measures, we can take note of proposals for a Capital Market Union (CMU), easier cross-border transactions, e-commerce, capital movements or enhanced shareholder engagement. The negotiations will be a one to two year long process for those legislative proposals.

To improve investment climate, several EU sectoral programmes have been established as part of the Investment Plan for Europe and the European Fund for Strategic Investment, inter alia: Connecting European Facility and Horizon 2020. The two latter programmes are of particular relevance for the energy and environmental sectors, and cover research and/or infrastructures. Those programmes define some main research policy orientations, finance some essential cross-border projects and infrastructures of European interest, follow a selective application process and must be necessarily supplemented at national and local level ....which is indeed the competence of the Member States.

A more tricky priority - because of the national and international context - will be the negotiation of new trade deals as part of the objective to increase global competitiveness of the European industry. Energy and environmental services and goods are included in most trade agreements, would they be bilateral or multilateral. Much attention has focused on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but other negotations are also to follow. An interesting policy priority of the Trio is to better integrate sustainable development into existing EU external policy instruments and in new trade policy opportunities. Among the related multilateral processes are: the WTO Doha Development Agenda or the WTO agreements in the area of green goods. This comes in addition to new bilateral/regional trade agreements or modernisation of existing trade agreements (inter alia with Japan, China, Vietnam, India, ASEAN, MERCOSUR).
  • Policy priorities directly targeting energy and the environment
The most apparent energy priorities are covered by the Energy Union Strategy, a common priority for the three presidencies. The recently released Energy Union Winter Package is one of the most voluminous legislative initiatives, and will cover many aspects of the EU internal energy market. It is a package focused on energy but also climate policy, and is supported by a Governance system.

2. The environmental and energy priorities of the Maltese Presidency

The Maltese Presidency has 6 official priorities: migration, single market, security, social inclusion, Europe's neighbourhood and maritime.

As far as environmental and energy matters are concerned, we can expect to see concrete initiatives under the following two headings:
  • The Single Market:
    • reviewing the energy efficiency package aimed at reducing energy consumption in Residential buildings and industry through improved energy efficiency;
    • strengthening security fo energy supply, including in times of crises.
  • Maritime:
    • The presidency will follow-up legislative processes and initiatives as part of the Blue Growth Initiative;
    • It will increase the work of the EU on international ocean governance, by formally putting it on its presidency agenda. The alleged goal is to "ensure political endorsement on the way forward on a more coherent, comprehensive and effective EU policy to improve the international ocean governance framework and the sustainability of our oceans."

3. The general EU policy framework

The different policy priorities defined by each successive presidency must also be consistent with endorsed joint initiatives consisting, inter alia of:
  • the priorities of the Strategic Agenda
  • the principles underpinning Better Regulation
  • the Commission's annual programme.

4. Conclusion and analysis

First, it is clear that the energy policy, and the internal energy market in particular, will benefit from some general policy priorities related to the Single Market, the Digital Market and the Capital Market Union. The primary benefits will be lower barriers to operate and quicker procedures. The proposals in that domain have for most part having already put forward or announced, and the work will focus on following up and negotiating.

Then, it appears that two topics will dominate the energy / environmental legislative agenda of the EU as such in the two coming years, which are: the circular economy package and the energy union package. Some smaller related legislative initiatives will also count, such as the security of gas supply package or review of the Project of Common Interest Lists and Regulation on trans-European infrastructures, but the efforts will be concentrated on the two first processes.

Finally, energy will continue to be an integral part of the external policy of the EU, as part of several processes. Trade agreements have always integrated energy and environmental issues, but the quest for international competitiveness will force the EU and its Member States to rise the Level of ambition in that area. The Blue Economy and international ocean governance are getting high on the strategic agenda of all nations. We may expect a tougher competition and some tougher international negotiations in that area too, which includes discussions on both access to natural resources (energy, minerals) and development of related technologies. Having Malta, a shipping nation, leading the presidency for the next six months, will certaintly confort and reinforce the voice of the EU in that domain.
 
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