Ms Kadri Simson:

On the lock-in effort, some of the member states are now doing their utmost to find other alternative entry points for gas. The pipeline that connects them with Russia is now a stranded asset so they have opted for floating regasification vessels. This means that after a couple of years they will be sent to other regions where governments will most likely need them to switch from coal to gas. At European level, we have committed to no co-financing for pipelines unless they are hydrogen ready. There are some ongoing projects for gas interconnectors that we will need during the transition time because, according to our estimations, some natural gas will be necessary until 2050. After that date, the gas market has to be decarbonised so the perspective is 28 years.

How can we accelerate renewable deployment? There is strong ambition from the private sector. We have strong technological know-how and we have production sites. It is interesting that people in our windmill industry are complaining that in previous years they have been under significant pressure. It was difficult for them to get private financing because no financial institution was willing to finance the projects since they did not know how long the permitting process would take. This was a major bottleneck for that industry because financial institutions wanted to know when the projects would be ready. The permitting throughout Europe has been very time-consuming.

We hope we will help this sector with our permitting proposal. As the Deputy will know, we proposed three innovations, including allowing member states to dedicate certain territories as go-to zones where the permitting process is handled faster. We also proposed there should be shorter processes when people want to re-power existing wind boxes. This applies to wind boxes built ten or 20 years ago but, with the new technology, can now produce significantly more using the same land space. We also proposed that the permitting process should be significantly shorter for solar rooftops. These are proposals that member states and the European Parliament have to endorse before they become legislation, but I have had positive feedback from the European Parliament and member states. They see that in these extraordinary times we need to deliver fast from our legislative work.