EUFORES Academy: "Citizen Energy – making it real"

Many EU member states are presently facing the challenge of transposing the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II) and the Internal Market in Electricity Directive (IEMD) into national legislation. In the context of an online seminar on 17 November 2020, several European organisations and projects presented challenges and opportunities of the transposition process with a specific focus on the issue of energy communities.

Chaired by MEP Jutta Paulus, the event with the title „Citizen Energy – making it real” was especially intended for national government focal points. The webinar first addressed the national obligations as well as the targets and the monitoring of the RED II and IEMD transposition. Subsequently, five speakers focused on specific issues with regard to energy communities. Kristian Petrick gave an overview of the issues at stake on behalf of the H2020 project PROSEU. Ludwig Karg of EC Bridge introduced relevant classes of energy communities and presented topics and recommendations for the transposition process. Jens Lowitzsch of Viadrina University, representing the SCORE project at the event, looked into possible traps to avoid when transposing, presenting examples from Italy and Austria. Molly Walsh of Friends of the Earth Europe explored the barriers and potentials of the “enabling framework” by looking at the early transposers Greece and Ireland and their approaches. Finally, Dirk Vansintjan of REScoop.eu rounded off the picture by presenting a grassroots perspective on the transposition process.

More than 60 legislators from EU-27 countries attended the online event. Due to the big success, the seminar will be repeated in January 2021.

The event was jointly organised by EUFORES, EREF, Community Power, SCORE, PROSEU, BRIDGE, REScoop.eu, and the Renewables Networking Platform.