A political agreement on draft legislation has been reached between the European Parliament and the EU Council. “This is really a breakthrough and will give a big push to much-needed infrastructure,” says Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger.

The European Commission (EC) first unveiled its €9.1bn package to leverage investment to modernise and extend Europe’s energy infrastructure in October 2011. It wants to eliminate unnecessary delays in authorisation procedures for new priority power lines, including offshore grids.

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