EC releases blueprint for future EU-UK energy relations

The European Commission (EC) has released a blueprint for negotiations on agreeing a permanent relationship between the European Union (EU) and the UK, which would forge energy relations that are as close as possible, given Britain is to quit the single European energy market, writes Keith Nuthall.

With final status talks about to begin in earnest and a UK position paper awaited, the EC has already laid down requests that the UK maintains as much cooperation in energy policy as possible when the current transitional period (during which the UK follows EU laws) expires on 31 December 2020.

Of key importance is dealing with gas and electricity flows between the UK and continental Europe. The EC said a deal should ‘include mechanisms to ensure as far as possible security of supply and efficient trade over interconnectors over different timeframes’.

Also, given the current EC’s prioritising of environmentalism, it is maybe not a surprise that Brussels wants the UK to promise to maintain a carbon pricing system, ‘of at least the same effectiveness and scope’ as existing EU standards. Notably, the EC wants to consider linking a UK national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading system with the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). ‘Such linking of systems should be based on the conditions agreed within the Union, ensure the integrity of the Union’s ETS and a level playing field, and provide for the possibility to increase the level of ambition over time,’ said the negotiating document. It added that it hoped UK renewable energy expansion commitments would be written into any such agreement. Moreover, the EC wants a general energy section to be written into a permanent deal that would set ‘transparent and non-discriminatory rules for exploration and production, and specific market access rules’ regarding energy supplies, along with ‘rules that support and further promote trade and investment in the renewable energy sector’.