Programme to aid economic recovery: financial assistance to projects in the field of energy, European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR)

The Commission presented a report on the implementation of the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR) and the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF).

All EEPR projects were adopted in 2010. The report covers the implementation of the projects between 31 August 2015 and 30 June 2016 and the payments made during that period.

Implementation of projects: the EEPR delivered good results. The majority of projects (37 out of 59) were completed by the end of June 2016, and a total amount of EUR 2 122 297.449 was paid to the beneficiaries. The strict control exercised by the European Commission in project implementation and monitoring has helped to increase the efficiency of the instrument.

Gas and electricity infrastructures: the EEPR infrastructure sub-programme supports 44 projects in three major areas of activities: (i) gas infrastructure and storage projects; (ii) gas reverse flow projects; (iii) electricity infrastructure projects.

To date, 33 out of the 44 infrastructure projects have been completed with six projects ongoing and one suspended. 

Important progress has been made since the last 2015 EEPR implementation report. For instance the project Halle/Saale – Schweinfurt link the North-Eastern part to the South-Eastern part of Germany, is almost completed; the France-Spain interconnection (Baixas – Santa Llogaia) was inaugurated in February 2015; the interconnection between Sicily and mainland Italy  (Sorgente – Rizziconi) is completed; the Nordbalt 01 project (subsea interconnection between Lithuania to Sweden) has progressed well and was inaugurated in December 2015.

Offshore wind energy (OWE): this EEPR sub-programme consisted of nine projects and gave EUR 565 million of support. Three of nine projects were completed and 2 terminated prematurely. EUR 221 985 224 was paid to the projects.

Despite the fact that Off-Shore Wind projects appeared to be more complex than expected, the promoters and the constructors have managed to find solutions and the technological knowledge has been gained over the five years. 

Carbon capture and storage (CCS): this EEPR sub-programme consisted of 6 projects and EUR 1 billion of support to aim at demonstrating the full carbon capture, transport and storage process.

The Commission remains committed to demonstrating CCS despite the challenges in finding the necessary complementary funding which has led to the termination of some EEPR projects.

The Commission is in the final phase of negotiating with the ROAD project which would be the first project in Europe demonstrating the application of post-combustion CCS technology to a commercial scale coal power plant.