Fiche Belgium: p13
The Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 asks Member States to develop National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) that define their targets, strategies and measures for achieving the EU’s mid-term (2030) and long-term (2050) decarbonisation objectives. In addition, it requires Member States to establish multilevel climate and energy dialogues (MCEDs), which involve local and regional authorities (LRAs), civil society organisations (CSOs), business community and other relevant stakeholders and provide opportunities for the stakeholders to discuss the NECPs. Member States submitted their first NECPs in 2020 and are currently working on their updates, which will be assessed by the European Commission before being finalised. In this context, the main objective of this study is to examine how LRAs are currently participating in the NECPs process and how the establishment of MCEDs is being implemented, identifying areas for improvement. This is based on a review of existing assessments of the countries’ 2020 NECPs and a five-week survey among LRAs and other stakeholders.
The general findings of the study indicate that, overall, some forms of MCED or at least broad public consultations on the NECPs or related climate/energy policies have been established in all Member States. Nevertheless, the quality of these consultations differs and the outcome remains unclear in most cases, the existing practices can be considered a form of MCED. For instance, many of the survey respondents represting LRAs or their associations consider that the quality of MCEDs in their countries is not satisfactory. While most assessments as well as many of the survey respondents indicate that NECPs are generally well integrated with other relevant national policy documents, such integration with subnational climate and energy policies is more limited or missing in some cases.
In light of this, the following recommendations are proposed to Member States and European policy-makers:
• Enhance the effectiveness and implementation of the MCED;
• Ensure the active participation of LRAs throughout all stages of the NECP process;
• Harness the potential of LRAs to foster the participation of citizens and the general public;
• Provide sufficient financial and technical support to LRAs;
• Strengthen subnational integration of targets and objectives in the NECPs;
• Incorporate the energy and climate investments from emergency-related instruments and reforms into the updated NECPs;
• Improve the alignment of NECPs with other strategic documents.
