Regional Consultation 2023-2024
Belgium has a long tradition of regional cooperation within Europe, with a leading role within the Benelux Union. It is therefore natural for Belgium to look beyond its national borders when developing its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
In 2018, Belgium, as the then Benelux president, took the initiative to promote cooperation between neighbouring countries on the National Energy and Climate Plans. This led to a political declaration signed by the Benelux countries, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. These countries are part of the Pentalateral Energy Forum, which already had strong regional cooperation on electricity. This forum therefore proved to be the ideal platform to jointly address broader energy and climate issues.
This tradition of cooperation continued in 2023-2024, during the first update of the NECPs. It focused on the cross-border impact of different energy and climate policies within the Penta countries and, by extension, the NSEC countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, together with the European Commission). NSEC, or the North Seas Energy Cooperation, is a regional partnership aimed at promoting offshore renewable energy development in the geographical area of the North Sea. Given Belgium's close connection with these countries through interconnections and cooperation agreements, consultation is crucial. Moreover, by holding regional consultations, the European obligation as registered in the EU Governance Regulation 2018/1999 to consult neighbouring countries in the context of promoting regional cooperation in the drafting and updates of NECPs is fulfilled. Accordingly, for both the Pentalateral Energy Forum and NSEC, common paragraphs have been drafted and included in the NECPs since 2019.
Within this framework, several discussions took place in 2023-2024 to finalise the updated NECPs. This process ensures that the countries concerned continue to cooperate closely and can closely monitor the progress of the plans. In the future, this regional cooperation will also play an important role in any adjustments and updates to the NECPs where BE will always aim to continue playing a leading role within the existing forums.
A summary of the consultation that Belgium (as Penta Chair) and Denmark (as NSEC Chair) organised on 24 March 2024 with the Penta and NSEC countries, in close cooperation with the Benelux Secretariat in a coordinating role, can be found here: NEKP Regional Consultation Penta & NSEC - 25 March 2024.
Regional consultation 2018-2019
Belgium has a long tradition of regional cooperation within Europe, just think of its pioneering role within the Benelux Union and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Logically, Belgium is therefore looking beyond its own national borders for the development of the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
In 2018, in its role as president of the Benelux, Belgium took the lead to organize the cross-border cooperation in the frame of the National Energy and Climate Plans. This eventually resulted in a political declaration signed by the Benelux countries, but also by Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. These countries were not chosen by chance: they are all part of the Pentalateral Energy Forum. The existing fruitful cooperation regarding electricity made this forum the favoured choice to expand with wider energy and climate issues.
In 2019, several bilateral consultations between these countries took place in order to be able to complete the final NECPs. In this way, the obligations(*) to consult neighbouring countries were also met in the frame of regional cooperation. It goes without saying that the regional partners will keep their finger on the pulse of possible adjustments and updates to the plans for the coming decade.
More information:
Benelux Declaration on Regional Cooperation in the Elaboration of Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans
Political Declaration of the Pentalateral Energy Forum on Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans
Presentation of the regional consultation on the draft Belgian integrated national energy and climate plan of 4 September 2019
(*) Article 11 of the Governance Regulation.