Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The European Commission has published a press release on 13 March 2017 inviting comments on the commitments submitted by Gazprom in the case opened in April 2015 and which relates to the alleged  anti-competitive behaviours on the Central and Eastern European gas markets .  

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 .

Ci-dessous vous trouverez le lien vers une tribune commune dont je suis co-auteur et intitulée: " Présidentielles : les candidats pensent à l'écologie sans l'Europe ". Cette tribune a été publiée sur le site Actu-Environnement.com  et a pour but de rappeler les bases européennes du droit de l'environnement. C'est aussi un appel à une évocation juste et précise de ce droit dans la campagne présidentielle en cours à un moment où les candidats élaborent leurs programmes. Bonne lecture! http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/banet-gossement-greenwood-virvoulet-presidentielles-candidat-ecologie-europe-28122.php4

The 28th European Energy Law Seminar (EELS) is now opened for registration . Registration website : http://www.never.nl/site/ Place : The seminar will find place at the hotel Hampshire Babylon, The Hague, The Netherlands. Date : 23-24 January 2017 Organisers : The EELS-seminar is a Cooperation between the Dutch energy law Association, the Energy Law Centre of the University of Groningen and the Energy Law Department of the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo. On the programme : review of recent EU case Law, impacts of Brexit, winter package and electricity market design, cross-border infrastructures, future roles of DSOs and TSOs, capacity market mechanisms, renewable energy investments, recast of the renewable energy Directive, prosumers, security of gas supply, future role of gas. We hope to see you there for once again some fruitful discussions around EU energy law topics with other European colleagues. ...

I had the pleasure to answer some questions to Radio France International on the German Constitutional Court case on nuclear phase-out. Please see below the full article, with comments from diverse actors: " German government ordered to pay damages for nuclear phase-out " , by M. Woods for RFI , 6 December 2016

Today, the German Federal Constitutional Court released its decision in a case opposing the German government to the three energy companies E.ON, RWE and Vattenfall, and related to compensation for the rapid phase-out of nuclear energy in Germany . The Court concluded that the amendments made to the Atomic Energy Act following the decision by the German authorities in 2011 to accelerate the nuclear phase-out after the accident in Fukushima  did not infringe the right to property of the three companies. However, the Court ruled that those companies  were entitled to a "reasonable" compensation for the loss they suffered. The German Parliament has until 30 June 2018 to amend the Atomic Energy Act accordingly and the government  must reach an agreement on compensation with the three companies. As argued in my analysis below, even if this case remains a German domestic case, it teaches us some important lessons on the legal requirem...