By Tsvetana Paraskova – May 08, 2025, 9:00 AM CDT
The EU plans to simplify energy laws to reduce bureaucracy and enhance competitiveness.
Streamlined regulations are expected to ease burdens on energy-intensive industries while maintaining decarbonization goals.
Final decisions are pending discussions ahead of the EU energy ministers’ summit in June.
The European Union member states are looking to include energy laws and regulations in wider efforts to cut bureaucracy aimed at boosting the bloc’s competitiveness, a draft document seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.
Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed measures to cut red tape and simplify legislation for EU businesses and citizens. The plans to simplify rules “is a major step forward in creating a more favourable business environment to help EU companies grow, innovate, and create quality jobs,” the Commission said at the end of February.
“EU companies will benefit from streamlined rules on sustainable finance reporting, sustainability due diligence and taxonomy. This will make life easier for our businesses while ensuring we stay firmly on course toward our decarbonisation goals. And more simplification is on the way,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time.
European competitiveness has been eroded in recent years by volatile and high energy prices, which are up to five times higher than those in the United States and China. The new tariffs from the U.S. are also hitting major European industries. Some European facilities face an existential threat after years of trying to cope with the high energy costs.
Now, the EU countries are considering extending the simplification to other EU laws, according to the draft conclusions in the document ahead of an EU energy ministers’ summit in the middle of June.
If energy laws are simplified, too, it “is expected to have a profound impact on lowering the regulatory burden for companies in the energy sector and energy intensive industries while maintaining alignment with the original policy objectives,” per the document seen by Reuters.
This isn’t the final draft ahead of the energy ministers’ summit next month. Diplomats from the EU member states continue discussions about which areas should see laws simplified.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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