Croatia fails to transpose EU’s Renewable Energy Directive

The European Commission has requested financial sanctions against Croatia for failing to transpose in national legislation the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The same measure is also demanded for Hungary and Portugal.

The European Commission pointed out that renewable energy is a key element of the European Green Deal as well as a central pillar of the REPowerEU plan, and that it is taking legal steps to ensure the development of renewable energy across the EU and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy dependency and high prices.

The European Commission has decided to refer Croatia, Hungary and Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union with a request to impose financial sanctions in accordance with Article 260(3) TFEU for failing to transpose RED, the commission said.

The EU member states were required to transpose the Directive by June 30, 2021.

Croatia has failed to notify appropriately where it has transposed each provision of the directive in its national legislation

The commission said it has been providing continuous support to the member states to transpose the rules, but Croatia, Hungary and Portugal have so far failed to notify appropriately where they have transposed each provision of the directive in their national legislation.

In July 2021, the commission sent a letter of formal notice to all member states. In May 2022, after assessing the transposition measures notified by these three member states, the commission issued reasoned opinions urging them to comply with the obligation to indicate in a sufficiently clear and precise manner all the national measures by which they considered the directive transposed.

RED was adopted in 2018

To date Croatia, Hungary and Portugal are the only three member states that have failed to notify any correlation table or explanatory document specifying where they have transposed each provision of the directive, the commission noted.

Of note, RED, adopted in 2018, provides the legal framework for the development of renewable energy in electricity, heating and cooling, and transport in the EU during this decade. It sets an EU-level binding target for 2030 of at least 32% renewable energy, and promotes self-consumption and the setup of renewable energy communities.