Microgeneration Outlook - Design for Micro-Combined Cooling, Heating and Power Systems - page 2

1.1 The European Union

Politically, “ the European Union is a remarkable innovation in relations among

states [ 3 ] and both the Union and the energy sector have equally evolved. The

European Union started in the 1950s with the European Economic Community
(EEC), than the European Community (EC) in 1993 after the Treaty of Maastricht and
becoming in 2009 after the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Union as we now know.
Legally speaking, there are more than 50 years since the entry in force of the first
of the treaties that shaped the modern European Union. The current treaty in force
since 1 December 2009 is the Treaty of Lisbon (the Treaty on the Functioning of
the European Union

”

TFEU) being preceded by the Nice Treaty (2003), the
Amsterdam Treaty (1999), the Maastricht Treaty (1993) and the Single European
Act (1987) [ 4 ].

—

1.2 The European Energy Sector

It is important to know that whether founding or joining the European Union, the
Member States (MS) freely undertook certain Treaty obligations which are funda-
mental for the proper development of the Union. And if, historically, the energy sector
was an exclusive competence of the State, given its increasing importance, it has
nowadays become a shared competence between the European Union and the MS
which must be satis ed. Moreover, this delimitation of competences, either exclusive

of shared between the European Union and the MS, is explicitly stated 1 in the Treaty.
As such, the energy sector is a shared competence 2 with a well established legal
basis. 3 Accordingly, the European Union aims at ensuring the functioning of the

1

Article 2, Para ' s 1 and 2 of TFEU

“ 1. When the Treaties confer on the Union exclusive competence in a speci c area, only the

Union may legislate and adopt legally binding acts, the MS being able to do so themselves
only if so empowered by the Union or for the implementation of Union acts.
2. When the Treaties confer on the Union a competence shared with the MS in a speci c
area, the Union and the MS may legislate and adopt legally binding acts in that area. The
MS shall exercise their competence to the extent that the Union has not exercised its
competence. The MS shall again exercise their competence to the extent that the Union has
decided to cease exercising its competence ” .

2

Article 4, Para. 2 of TFEU
“ 1. Shared competence between the Union and the MS applies in the following principal areas:
(i) energy.
3 Article 194, Para. 1 of TFEU

“ 1. In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market and with

regard for the need to preserve and improve the environment, Union policy on energy shall
aim, in a spirit of solidarity between MS, to: