Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2003 of 6 August 2021 supplementing Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council by establishing the Union renewable development platform (Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources ¹, and in particular Article 8(3) thereof,

Whereas:

• (1) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 sets out a number of cooperation mechanisms to facilitate the achievement of the Union targets for renewable energy in a cost-effective manner, including statistical transfers of energy from renewable sources between Member States. Statistical transfers made pursuant to Article 6 of Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ² and Article 8 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, allow Member States that fall short of their renewables target set out by Directive 2009/28/EC, or their renewables contribution referred to in Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, to buy renewable energy statistics from Member States that are exceeding their target or contribution. Statistical transfers may also be used by Member States to meet the reference points of the indicative trajectory pursuant to Article 32(3), point (e) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council ³.

• (2) Pursuant to Article 3(6) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 the Commission is to establish a facilitative platform in order to support Member States using cooperation mechanisms to contribute to the binding overall Union target for renewable energy.

• (3) In order to facilitate statistical transfers between Member States, the Commission is empowered to establish a Union renewable development platform (‘URDP’). The URDP should provide an overview of the target and contribution achievement in Member States, include information provided by Member States on supply and demand for statistical transfers of renewable energy, allow Member States to indicate their willingness to engage in statistical transfers and describe the possible conditions for a transfer, identify potential transfer partners through a matching mechanism and provide the contact points in charge of statistical transfers in the Member States. The URDP should also contain a repository with guidance documents and an overview of available information on concluded statistical transfer arrangements. Use of the URDP should be on a voluntary basis.

• (4) The URDP should facilitate agreements on statistical transfers. Potential transfers identified by means of the matching mechanism should not be legally binding.

• (5) The data on aggregated energy quantities available for statistical transfers used for the URDP should come from third party assessments, and from the integrated national energy and climate plans, the updated integrated national energy and climate plans, and the integrated national energy and climate progress reports, as appropriate, submitted by Member States pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999. The Commission should feed those data into the platform. Additionally, Member States should be able to indicate the amount of statistical transfers they are interested in making, as buyers or sellers, as well as any particular conditions for the statistical transfer they are interested in including.

• (6) In order to ensure the protection of sensitive data relevant to transfers between Member States, access to the URDP should be limited to specific contact points identified by the Member States. Therefore, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁴ should apply where relevant.

• (7) In order to assist Member States in the conclusion of statistical transfers of energy from renewable sources, the Commission should provide guidance material about the URDP, including a user manual and templates as well as relevant information on concluded statistical transfer agreements.

• (8) In order to allow for the prompt application of the measures provided for in this Regulation, this Regulation should enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes the Union renewable development platform (‘URDP’) to facilitate statistical transfers for the purposes of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, and to facilitate the achievement of the Union target set out in Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 and of each Member State’s contribution to that target in accordance with Article 3(2) of that Directive.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

• (1) ‘statistical transfer’ means the transfer of the statistical value, without requiring a physical transfer, of a specified amount of energy from renewable sources as reported under Annex B, point 5 to Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics ⁵ from one Member State to another Member State, which amount is deducted from the amount of energy from renewable sources that is taken into account in calculating the renewable energy share of the Member State making the transfer and added to the amount of energy from renewable sources that is taken into account in calculating the renewable energy share of the Member State accepting the transfer;

• (2) ‘buying Member State’ means a Member State that enters into a statistical transfer agreement to buy a certain statistical quantity of renewable energy from another Member State which is added to the amount of energy from renewable sources that is taken into account in calculating the former Member State’s renewable energy share pursuant to Article 8(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001;

• (3) ‘selling Member State’ means a Member State that enters into a statistical transfer agreement to sell a certain statistical quantity of renewable energy to another Member State which is deducted from the amount of energy from renewable sources that is taken into account in calculating the former Member State’s renewable energy share pursuant to Article 8(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001;

• (4) ‘additional conditions’ means criteria, beyond the timing, price and volume of a statistical transfer, that Member States may choose to attach to a statistical transfer agreement;

• (5) ‘energy from renewable sources’ or ‘renewable energy’ means energy from renewable sources or renewable energy as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001;

• (6) ‘statistical transfer volume’ or ‘volume’ means the transferred volume of renewable energy to be deducted from the selling Member State’s statistical accounts and added to those of the buying Member State pursuant to Article 8(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001.

Article 3

Objectives

• (a) identify potential opportunities for statistical transfers among Member States by providing aggregated information on:

• (i) Member States which have exceeded or are expected to exceed their renewable contribution or target and thus potentially have excess renewable statistical amounts to be transferred to another Member State;

• (ii) Member States which have fallen short or are expected to fall short of their renewable contribution or target and could therefore be potentially in deficit of renewable statistical amounts;

• (b) include information provided by Member States on supply and demand for statistical transfers of renewable energy, including volume, price and time frame as well as any additional conditions for the transfer;

• (c) facilitate agreements on statistical transfers between Member States through a non-binding matching mechanism of demand for and supply of statistical transfers between Member States and by providing contact points in Member States to enter into discussions on agreements;

• (d) provide access to guidance material assisting Member States in concluding statistical transfers;

• (e) increase transparency on concluded statistical transfer agreements by providing key information on those transfers, including information about volumes, prices and timing as well as the related statistical transfer agreement documents, where they are publicly available.

Article 4

Identification of available energy quantities for statistical transfers

Article 5

Requests to buy or sell from Member States

• (a) the volume of energy from renewable sources which they seek to buy or sell from or to another Member State through a statistical transfer, including, as applicable, any fixed or flexible volume component;

• (b) the indication of a price or a price range at which they would accept to buy or sell any excess production of energy from renewable sources from or to another Member State through a statistical transfer, including as applicable, any fixed or flexible price component;

• (c) the time frame for which a statistical transfer may be concluded, including, as applicable, a single year or several years, the previous or current year or other future years;

• (d) any other additional conditions or priorities to be attached to the statistical transfer.

Article 6

Access to the URDP and Member States contact points

Article 7

Guidance and information

Article 8

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 6 August 2021.

For the Commission

The President

Ursula VON DER LEYEN