• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bankwatch

  • About us
    • Our vision
    • Who we are
    • 30 years of Bankwatch
    • Donors & finances
    • Get involved
  • What we do
    • Campaign areas
      • Beyond fossil fuels
      • Rights, democracy and development
      • Finance and biodiversity
      • Funding the energy transformation
      • Cities for People
    • Institutions we monitor
      • European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
      • European Investment Bank
      • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
      • Asian Development Bank (ADB)
      • EU funds
    • Our projects
    • Success stories
  • Publications
  • News
    • Blog posts
    • Press releases
    • Stories
    • Podcast
    • Us in the media
    • Videos

Home > Press release > Reaction to the European Parliament Environment Committee vote on amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive

Reaction to the European Parliament Environment Committee vote on amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive

The result of today’s voting on the Renewable Energy Directive is highly disappointing as it waives current rules on environmental assessments and protection of Natura 2000 areas.

25 October 2022

The Commission’s proposal to automatically declare renewables as being of ‘overriding public interest’ is a particularly gratuitous attack on the EU’s nature legislation. It would seriously undermine the Habitats Directive without significantly increasing overall renewables capacity. 

We urgently need to speed up sustainable forms of renewable energy, but exempting them from environmental rules won’t help. EU environmental law is already flexible enough to allow rapid renewables development; further eroding it will just cause legal chaos and public resistance. 

If these proposals make it into law, the public will no longer be consulted on individual renewables projects in go-to areas. Damaging projects will be able to go ahead in Natura 2000 protected areas, irrespective of their impact. Trying to force them through without consulting people will inevitably end in lengthy court battles. 

We’ll have two parallel environmental law regimes for renewables – one in the EIA Directive, Habitats Directive etc. and a hyperspeed one in the Renewable Energy Directive. This will increase complications for Member States and increase legal uncertainty for project developers. 

Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor with CEE Bankwatch Network, said, ‘In its vote on amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive, the Environment Committee succumbed to the European Commission’s poorly thought-out proposals to bulldoze EU environmental safeguards by the back door.’  

For more information contact:   
Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor, CEE Bankwatch Network
pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org 

Never miss an update

We expose the risks of international public finance and bring critical updates from the ground – straight to your inbox.





Institution: EU

Theme: Renewable Energy Directive

Location: EU

Tags: EU | renewable energy

Footer

CEE Bankwatch Network gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.

The content of this website is the sole responsibility of CEE Bankwatch Network and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

Unless otherwise noted, the content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 License

Your personal data collected on the website is governed by the present Privacy Policy.

Get in touch with us

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube