A Very Specific and Exhaustive Harmonization of Energy from Renewable Sources: C-549/15, E.ON Biofor Sverige AB v. Statens Energimyndighet [2017] ECLI:EU:C:2017:490

Abstract

The European Union Court of Justice has ruled that Article 18(1) of Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources does not oblige Member States to authorize imports, via their interconnected national gas networks, of biogas satisfying the sustainability criteria in that directive and intended for use as biofuel. The Court had been asked whether that provision, adopted on the basis of internal market harmonization (pursuant to what is now Article 114 TFEU), obliges Member States to accept sustainable biogas imported via the network of interconnected national gas pipelines and, in the negative, whether that provision breaches the EU free movement of goods rules. The judgment, implicitly exploring the contours of competence as well as ‘exhaustive’ harmonization (in this case, in the economically sensitive renewable energy context), is emphatic of the characteristic symbiosis of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ integration in the internal market.