Luxembourg — Sluggish approval processes must be addressed to advance the transition to greener energy in Europe, a group of 12 EU countries said in a joint communiqué to the European Commission published on Tuesday.

“We need to accelerate the approval procedures to ensure that we can further stimulate the ongoing wave of investment in solar and wind energy,” German Economy and Climate Action Ministry State Secretary Sven Giegold said at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Furthermore, the European energy market must be interconnected, “so that in the future everyone can benefit from cheap solar and affordable wind energy,” the Green politician added. He stated that investments in renewable energy are the backbone of the plan to end Europe’s energy dependency on Russia.

Together with 11 other member states, Germany has approached the European Commission with a series of measures to advance investments in renewable energy production.

“We propose a set of measures that should be at the cornerstone of our energy policy priorities and those of the next European Commission to enable the rapid deployment of renewables in the years to come,” according to the joint paper.

In addition to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, it was signed by his counterparts from Austria, Italy, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands, among others.

They are urging the new European Commission to propose legislation for faster approval processes.

Moreover, the Brussels authority should develop tools for member states to better manage the integration of volatile production: For instance, solar or wind energy generates energy intermittently as the sun does not shine continuously and the wind does not always blow.

The development of a cost-efficient European hydrogen infrastructure should be promoted with incentives for cross-border planning development, the paper said.

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