EU countries want red tape cut in energy laws, draft shows

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union countries want to include energy policies in the bloc's efforts to slash red tape for struggling industries, according to draft conclusions for a summit of EU energy ministers next month seen by Reuters.

The European Commission has launched a drive to remove layers of bureaucracy that European businesses say set them at a disadvantage against China and the United States, where the Trump administration is aggressively rolling back regulation.

After publishing a first wave of so-called "simplification omnibus" proposals in February to cut back sustainability reporting rules for companies, the Commission is now assessing which other EU laws could be pared back to cut red tape.

EU countries will signal their support for adding energy policies to this effort, according to the draft conclusions for the ministers' meeting on June 16.

The draft conclusions backed the plans to simplify more EU laws, and said this "is expected to have a profound impact on lowering the regulatory burden for companies in the energy sector and energy intensive industries while maintaining alignment with the original policy objectives."

EU diplomats are still negotiating the conclusions, which could change before ministers approve them.

The EU's simplification efforts have met mixed reactions so far. Some industries have backed the plans as a boost to their competitiveness, while large companies said they offered little relief from bureaucracy, and some investors and campaigners criticised the weakening of sustainability rules as a blow to Europe's efforts to curb climate change.

The policies countries want simplified include the EU's energy saving obligations and its methane emissions rules, EU diplomats told Reuters.

The diplomats said the final conclusions are expected to say little on Brussels' plans to propose, in June, legislation to ban all Russian gas imports by end-2027.

That is because EU countries must approve the conclusions unanimously, meaning one government can block them. Hungary and Slovakia have both said they reject the plan to quit Russian energy.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)