Client Alert: The European Commission has released its Wind Power Action Plan

The European Commission (EC) has just published a European Wind Power package including a Wind Power Action Plan, which aims at helping the European wind industry navigate the current challenging context (i.a. covid recovery, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, problems of access to raw materials).

The Action Plan lists the key issues identified by the EC (e.g. rising inflation, unpredictable demand, lengthy and difficult permitting process, unfair competition from foreign operators) and proposes measures, organised around six main areas, like access to finance and fairer competition, to deal with these issues. The EC notably points to its band new powers to review Foreign Subsidies that may distort competition within the European market and calls for pro-active engagement of European operators in this regard.

Although this Action Plan should be welcomed as it aims to protect Europe's green industry and strengthens the initial measures outlined in Fit for 55 package and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), from a French perspective, it questions the adequacy of the measures recently introduced by the legislator (as the recent Law of 10 March 2023 to encourage the acceleration of renewable energy projects) to sufficiently accelerate the development of renewable energy projects in general and wind power projects in particular, and our economic and energy sovereignty.