The directive raises the EU’s binding renewable target for 2030 to 42.5% from the current 32%. Credit: Freepik.
Strasbourg, France, Sept 13 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech MEPs are divided on the draft of the EU Renewable Energy Directive, which was approved by the European Parliament (EP) yesterday with 470 of the 630 MEPs present voting in support of it.
The directive raises the EU’s binding renewable target for 2030 to 42.5% from the current 32%. According to EP documents, the new targets have already been informally negotiated with the European Council. The member states have yet to officially approve them.
Nine of the 21 Czech MEPs voted for the directive, four voted against it, five abstained from the vote, and three were not present.
Both MEPs for the Czech Pirates present supported the directive. Mikulas Peksa, said digitization of the energy industry, which should allow more effective reaction to weather or fluctuations of consumption, seems to him the main contribution of the directive. He also said he expected that adding new renewable sources to the network would be easier.
Peksa said the strengthening of renewable resources should lead to a lower consumption of fossil fuels and lower imports, for example from Russia.
Evzen Tosenovsky abstained from the vote, but the three other MEPs for the Civic Democrats (ODS) voted against it. Veronika Vrecionova said she believed that the Czech Republic would not be able to achieve the higher target in the share of renewables. However, she agreed with the simplification of the administrative steps needed to build new power plants with renewable sources.
MEP Ludek Niedermayer (TOP 09), who voted for the directive, noted that the new goal was at the level of the whole EU, and that member states would present their revised pledges to the European Commission in their plans, if the directive is definitively approved. “The goal is proposed very, very reasonably,” he said, adding that the Czech EU presidency played a big role in the negotiation of the proposal last year.
Two Czech MEPs for the ANO movement supported the proposal and three of them abstained from the vote.
Both MEPs for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) voted in support, as did MEP Stanislav Polcak (STAN) and Radka Maxova (SocDem). On the contrary, MEP Katerina Konecna (Communists) voted against it. Neither of the MEPs from the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) were present.
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