Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-13-Speech-2-356"
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"en.20010313.21.2-356"2
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"Mr President, congratulations to the rapporteur, who has achieved a quite remarkable level of consensus right across this House. That consensus is leading to the joint initiative he mentioned, which we shall be announcing tomorrow. This is unusually good working together. Thank you, too, to the Commissioner, who works within the limits of a very inadequate Treaty. There is no energy chapter in the Treaty. This is a big gap and we must continue to put pressure on Member States if we want a coherent policy. That is what disappoints me about this action plan. It does not seem to be part of a coherent energy policy with short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies. It is a piecemeal approach in which the emphasis varies according to the publication.
The case for energy efficiency is clear and unanswerable. It meets all three requisites of an energy policy: environmental impact, security of supply and competitiveness. All are helped by energy efficiency. So if this is so self-evident, the obvious question is why do we need an action plan? Why is this not happening automatically? We know what the barriers are to accepting such a common sense solution. Ignorance of the facts, particularly at household and small firm level. Lack of incentive – energy in the European Union is artificially cheap because of the subsidies for the conventional forms of energy, which are often denied but certainly there, and the failure to take on board the external costs. In many Member States, there is no requirement to even look at demand site management. Commissioner, what has happened to the rational planning directive? Please bring it forward again. It has not finished its journey through the legislative process. Transport is, of course, a particularly difficult area and action is needed.
This action plan of the Commission's is unambitious. A 1% per annum improvement would be very easy to achieve. We need at least 2.5%; that is attainable. We want to give serious consideration to the setting up of an energy programme agency with the task of producing the coherent energy strategy I mentioned. We can look at energy appliances. However, I am dubious about voluntary agreements. The Sixth Framework Programme gives us an opportunity to look at research and I hope that tomorrow, Commissioner, you will join with us in looking forward to a more intelligent use of energy in the European Union."@en1
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