European Commission urges Romania, other states to report progress on energy targets

The European Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Romania, Hungary, and Croatia due to their failure to report on the progress made regarding their national energy targets.

The member states are behind with their reporting targets. The Commission has requested comprehensive reports from Romania and Hungary regarding their progress on energy efficiency targets for 2020, which should have been submitted no later than April 30, 2022.

Sebastian Burduja, recently appointed as Romania’s minister of energy in the context of a government reshuffle, stated that one of his top priorities is to "improve the administrative capacity of the ministry,” according to Euractiv.

According to Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, member states are obliged to implement the Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme or adopt alternative measures to achieve the cumulative energy savings target within the mandatory period of 2021-2030. The first responsibility of the Energy Efficiency Directorate is to monitor and implement the national legislation adopted to achieve the energy efficiency objectives of each country by 2030.

Romania committed, through its Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP) in April 2020, to reach a target of 30.7% renewable energy in its total energy consumption by 2030.

According to the plan it has developed, Romania aims to decarbonize its industry, improve energy efficiency in terms of infrastructure and equipment, establish storage and transportation capacities, enhance procedural efficiency and digitization, and train human resources to meet the specific requirements of the renewable energy sector.

The majority of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) is dedicated to energy efficiency initiatives, primarily involving the national energy system, while REPowerEU focuses more on achieving energy independence and security through sustainable resources.

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