Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee: What conditions are needed for the energy and low-carbon transition to be socially acceptable?
(Exploratory opinion requested by the French Presidency of the Council of the EU)
(2022/C 290/04)
Rapporteur:
Arnaud SCHWARTZ
Co-rapporteur:
Pierre Jean COULON
Referral
French Presidency of the Council, 20.9.2021
Legal basis
Article 304 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
Section responsible
Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society
Adopted in section
10.3.2022
Adopted at plenary
23.3.2022
Plenary session No
568
Outcome of vote
(for/against/abstentions)
224/6/5
1. Conclusions and recommendations
1.1.
To make the energy transition socially acceptable, taking into account feedback from the planning and implementation stages, the EESC calls on all stakeholders to improve the following: independence of the process, quality and accessibility of information, freedom and diversity of participation, clarity of participation arrangements, accountability and inclusion in decision-making, transparency, monitoring of a plan or project from cradle to grave, and also the need for the transition to be affordable and work well (with available solutions, e.g. charging points for well-located electric vehicles in sufficient numbers).
1.2.
The EESC calls on the EU to do much more to promote fair distribution and ‘prosumption’ by means of financial incentives, as this is the factor with the greatest impact on local acceptance of the energy transition. Information on these incentives should be accessible and their processes should be simple. The objective of the Energy Union — to put the citizens at the heart of the policy and to make sure that they can