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Draft shows EU countries want to reduce red tape in energy laws

According to draft conclusions of a summit on EU energy ministers to be held next month, the EU wants to include energy policies as part of its efforts to reduce red tape and help struggling industries.

The European Commission is launching a campaign to eliminate layers of bureaucracy, which European businesses claim puts them at a competitive disadvantage with China and the United States where the Trump Administration is aggressively rollingback regulation.

The Commission has now assessed which other EU laws can be simplified to reduce red tape.

According to the draft conclusions of the Ministers' Meeting on June 16, EU countries will show their support to add energy policies to this initiative.

The draft conclusions supported the plans to simplify EU laws and stated that this "is expected have a profound effect on lowering regulatory burdens for companies in energy sector and energy-intensive industries while maintaining alignment to the original policy goals."

Diplomats in the EU are still working on the final conclusions. They could be changed before they are approved by ministers.

So far, the EU's efforts to simplify have been met with mixed reactions. The EU's simplification efforts have met with mixed reactions so far.

EU diplomats have told countries that they want to simplify the EU's methane emission rules and energy savings obligations.

Diplomats say that the final conclusions will likely not reveal much about Brussels' plans to propose legislation in June to ban all Russian imports of gas by 2027.

This is because EU member states must unanimously approve conclusions, which means that one government could block them. Hungary and Slovakia both rejected the plan to stop using Russian energy. (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett, Andrew Cawthorne).

(source: Reuters)