1. Projects of common interest shall meet the following general criteria:
(a)
the project is necessary for at least one of the energy infrastructure priority corridors and areas;
(b)
the potential overall benefits of the project, assessed according to the respective specific criteria in paragraph 2, outweigh its costs, including in the longer term; and
(c)
the project meets any of the following criteria:
(i)
involves at least two Member States by directly crossing the border of two or more Member States;
(ii)
is located on the territory of one Member State and has a significant cross-border impact as set out in Annex IV.1;
(iii)
crosses the border of at least one Member State and a European Economic Area country.
2. The following specific criteria shall apply to projects of common interest falling within specific energy infrastructure categories:
(a)
for electricity transmission and storage projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in Annex II.1(a) to (d), the project is to contribute significantly to at least one of the following specific criteria:
(i)
market integration, inter alia through lifting the isolation of at least one Member State and reducing energy infrastructure bottlenecks; competition and system flexibility;
(ii)
sustainability, inter alia through the integration of renewable energy into the grid and the transmission of renewable generation to major consumption centres and storage sites;
(iii)
security of supply, inter alia through interoperability, appropriate connections and secure and reliable system operation;
(b)
for gas projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in Annex II.2, the project is to contribute significantly to at least one of the following specific criteria:
(i)
market integration, inter alia through lifting the isolation of at least one Member State and reducing energy infrastructure bottlenecks; interoperability and system flexibility;
(ii)
security of supply, inter alia through appropriate connections and diversification of supply sources, supplying counterparts and routes;
(iii)
competition, inter alia through diversification of supply sources, supplying counterparts and routes;
(iv)
sustainability, inter alia through reducing emissions, supporting intermittent renewable generation and enhancing deployment of renewable gas;
(c)
for electricity smart grid projects falling under the energy infrastructure category set out in Annex II.1(e), the project is to contribute significantly to all of the following specific criteria:
(i)
integration and involvement of network users with new technical requirements with regard to their electricity supply and demand;
(ii)
efficiency and interoperability of electricity transmission and distribution in day-to-day network operation;
(iii)
network security, system control and quality of supply;
(iv)
optimised planning of future cost-efficient network investments;
(v)
market functioning and customer services;
(vi)
involvement of users in the management of their energy usage;
(d)
for oil transport projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in Annex II.3, the project is to contribute significantly to all of the following specific criteria:
(i)
security of supply reducing single supply source or route dependency;
(ii)
efficient and sustainable use of resources through mitigation of environmental risks;
(iii)
interoperability;
(e)
for carbon dioxide transport projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in Annex II.4, the project is contribute significantly to all of the following specific criteria:
(i)
the avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions while maintaining security of energy supply;
(ii)
increasing the resilience and security of carbon dioxide transport;
(iii)
the efficient use of resources, by enabling the connection of multiple carbon dioxide sources and storage sites via common infrastructure and minimising environmental burden and risks.
3. For projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in Annex II.1 to 3, the criteria listed in this Article shall be assessed in accordance with the indicators set out in Annex IV.2 to 5.
4. In order to facilitate the assessing of all projects that could be eligible as projects of common interest and that could be included in a regional list, each Group shall assess each project's contribution to the implementation of the same priority corridor or area in a transparent and objective manner. Each Group shall determine its assessment method on the basis of the aggregated contribution to the criteria referred to in paragraph 2; this assessment shall lead to a ranking of projects for internal use of the Group. Neither the regional list nor the Union list shall contain any ranking, nor shall the ranking be used for any subsequent purpose except as described in Annex III.2(14).
When assessing projects, each Group shall furthermore give due consideration to:
(a)
the urgency of each proposed project in order to meet the Union energy policy targets of market integration, inter alia through lifting the isolation of at least one Member State and competition, sustainability and security of supply;
(b)
the number of Member States affected by each project, whilst ensuring equal opportunities for projects involving peripheral Member States;
(c)
the contribution of each project to territorial cohesion; and
(d)
complementarity with regard to other proposed projects.
For smart grids projects falling under the energy infrastructure category set out in Annex II.1(e), ranking shall be carried out for those projects that affect the same two Member States, and due consideration shall also be given to the number of users affected by the project, the annual energy consumption and the share of generation from non-dispatchable resources in the area covered by these users.