Approximately €128 million from the European Regional Development Fund is invested in extending the Świnoujście LNG terminal. The current investment adds to over €250 million invested by the EU in the LNG terminal and to more than €2 billion in Polish energy infrastructure since 2007. The LNG regasification terminal in Świnoujście is the biggest LNG facility in Northern Europe and in the Central and Eastern Europe.
The European Parliament endorsed Wednesday the provisional agreement, reached by the EU institutions in late March, on Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme for the next budget period from 2021 to 2027. SEA Europe welcomed the agreement.
Europe invested €27 billion in new wind farms in 2018, which will finance a record amount of future new wind energy capacity, according to WindEurope’s annual report. The amount invested is similar to previous years, but, thanks to cost reduction, especially in offshore wind, it will finance a record 16.7 GW of new wind capacity.
The European Council voted to begin talks concerning the Trans-Atlantic Investment Partnership (TTIP), revealing the possibility that the US and EU could sign a new trade deal. The vote took place on April 15, and was passed despite France opposing to the US’s position on climate change, and specifically President Trump’s decision to be excluded from the Paris Agreement.
Switzerland will support China’s Belt and Road Initiative as President Ueli Maurer visits China during April. This will ensure ties with a major trading partner as other Western countries view the gigantic project with scepticism. The Swiss government said that the aim is to enhance cooperation on trade, investment and project financing in third markets along the Belt and Road Initiative.
The report ‘Powering Homes Today, Powering Nations Tomorrow’, was launched by ETIP Ocean and analyses the challenges faced by the sector on the route to industrial roll-out and proposes four actions to overcome them. The ocean energy industry forecasts that 100GW of wave and tidal energy capacity can be deployed in Europe by 2050, meeting 10% of Europe’s current electricity needs.
Eight days after rescuing 64 migrants off the coast of Libya, the humanitarian aid vessel Alan Kurdi is still seeking a port to disembark the survivors. In the meantime, Italy and Malta are still denying the Kurdi permission to enter port. Thus, the operator of the vessel has been forced to look for accommodation to other European states. For the time being, no port hasn’t accepted the vessel.
Ahead of the European Council (Article 50), the European Commission has taken stock of the European Union’s intense ‘no-deal’ preparations and has issued practical guidance to Member States in 5 areas, including citizens’ residence and social security entitlements, data protection, medicine and medical devices, police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, and fisheries.
The European Parliament voted on April 4 regarding the revision of Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training for seafarers. The revision gives emphasis on the level of transparency that should prevail in processing demands for the recognition of seafarers’ certificates of new third countries. Such a recognition will now stop to be automatic, as the decision to launch this process will have to be taken by the Commission by means of an implementing decision and on grounds of several criteria.
