The European Commission has included the H2Med hydrogen corridor project, of which Spain, France, Portugal and Germany are part, in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) that will be eligible for community financing.
The list, published this Tuesday by the Community Executive, includes a total of 166 selected projects, of which more than half (85) are electricity and smart electrical grid projects, according to Europa Press.
This is also the sixth list of cross-border projects published by the Commission, although it is the first to fully comply with the guidelines of the European Green Deal.
“The era of EU funding for fossil fuel infrastructure has come to an end; the time has come to invest in energy infrastructure suitable for a more flexible, decentralized and digitalised system, where consumers are also producers and the most of our energy comes from renewable sources,” highlighted the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson.
The Government presented its candidacy for the call for Projects of Common Interest on December 16 and passed its first technical examination by Brussels in June.
The Commission must now present the list to the Council and the European Parliament, which will have two months to object to the list – with the possibility of an extension of another two months – but they will not be able to request modifications to the list and, if none of them reject it, it will come into force.
Brussels also proposed this Tuesday a 12-month extension of the emergency measures introduced last year in response to the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the militarization of its energy resources, including the cap on gas.
Specifically, the three measures proposed for expansion include the so-called gas solidarity measures, the Market Correction Mechanism (known as the gas cap) and the rules relating to the granting of permits for renewable energy projects, although it corresponds to the Council agree to continue your application.
While the situation in the European energy market is more secure than a year ago, the Commission proposes this extension to further improve the security of gas supply and strengthen the resilience of the market.
