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Austria’s government agrees on climate plan late

by AI | 21.Aug 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Austria is the only EU country that has yet to send a draft national energy and climate plan to Brussels. By the end of June, the final text should have already been submitted to the European Commission, and infringement proceedings have already been initiated. However, the government in Vienna has now agreed on a draft text.

Archive photo - Austria is now meeting its target and Gewessler assumes that the EU Commission will see it that way too. Photo: John Thys/AFP

Vienna – With much delay, Austria’s government coalition agreed on a draft for a National Energy and Climate Plan (NEKP) last week and can now send it to Brussels for review. On Tuesday, the country’s Environment Minister, Leonore Gewessler (Greens), presented the key points of the approximately 350-page work in Vienna. In fact, the first NEKP draft was already submitted to the EU Commission last year, but European Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) withdrew it again in early December because it did not align with the Austrian government’s position.

“The topic has occupied us for a long time,” said Gewessler. She would have wished that the EU could have given its feedback on the NEKP earlier and that with the withdrawal of the draft, the country “did not present a good image.” However, Austria is now fulfilling its goal, and she assumes that the EU Commission will see it that way as well.

Because of the missing draft, the EU Commission opened infringement proceedings against Austria at the end of December 2023. Skipping a stage and now submitting the final NEKP right away was not possible, a Commission spokesperson stated in early July. “This is a step-by-step process. We need to receive a draft. The Commission will then make recommendations on it, and then we need a final plan.” (20.08.2024)