The European Commission has warned of an ambition gap on the way to member states achieving the bloc's 2030 renewables and energy efficiency goals, although it noted "some" progress. And European industry still faces comparatively high energy prices, the commission said in its twice-yearly report on countries' economies and finances.
Increasing energy efficiency and switching to less costly renewable energy is "essential" to improve the competitiveness of European industry, but most EU states lack solid and sufficiently detailed investment estimations, as well as concrete measures to attract private clean energy finance, the commission said.
And countries need to strengthen their carbon sinks from the land use, land-use change and forestry sectors. For Germany, the commission noted that the transport sector has failed to reach annual sector-specific emission targets, including in 2023, when the sector increased final energy consumption by 6.3pc compared with 2022.
EU states also need to strengthen policies to phase out fossil fuel subsidies so as to align with the EU goal of becoming a climate neutral economy, the commission said. For France, the commission estimated a net budgetary cost of emergency energy support measures at 0.9pc of GDP in 2023 and a projected 0.2pc in 2024, falling to 0pc in 2025. And for Italy the commission forecast a net budgetary cost of emergency energy support measures of 1pc of GDP in 2023, reaching 0pc in 2024. For Germany, the estimations are 1.2pc of GDP going to energy support measures in 2023, 0.1pc in 2024, and 0pc in 2025.
Another of the commission's key recommendations is to cut the share of Russian imports in total EU gas imports beyond the 15pc seen in 2023, even if the share historically stood at around 40pc. Further efforts are needed from "certain" countries to phase out imports of LNG from Russia, the commission said.
EU states have struggled to agree a further round of sanctions against Russia, which would include restricting the reloading of Russian LNG for export outside the EU at terminals in Europe. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the matter at a meeting on 24 June.
