Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-094"
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"en.20060322.12.3-094"2
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".
Mr President, firstly I would like to thank Mr Chichester for the question. It comes at a good time. As a matter of fact, the Austrian Presidency was exactly eight hours old when the point was driven home to us that energy is a European problem, a problem for all of us, because at 8 a.m. on the morning of 1 January 2006, the gas conflict between Russia, Ukraine and Moldova actually began. It became evident that we needed to address this problem, despite it not being entirely new. However, its importance has become evident, especially during the course of this year.
I would also like to point out that the ‘Intelligent Energy for Europe’ Programme is already making an important contribution here as part of the sixth Framework Research Programme. The seventh Framework Research Programme and the ‘Intelligent Energy for Europe’ Programme currently under discussion as part of the CIP Programme will also contain an appropriate and relevant priority.
There are also measures in the non-legislative sphere; only last year, for example, the energy ministers made a contribution to the 2005 Spring European Council. The Council is currently looking very urgently and attentively at the Biomass Action Plan, which has a high priority for us.
Mr Chichester, I would like to conclude by referring to your question about Kyoto post 2012, the security of energy supply and the competitiveness of the European Union and saying that in our view this effect may be fundamentally positive. It seems to me particularly important to say that we are convinced that a well-designed environment policy will have a positive effect on growth and employment.
Measures to promote energy efficiency lead to ecological innovations and environmental technologies, and demand for such innovations is growing steadily all over the world. This is also creating opportunities for our economies. By diversifying energy sources and especially by promoting renewable energy sources, we also want to make a contribution to the security of energy supply and at the same time to stemming climate change and increasing the competitiveness of the EU as a whole.
It is quite clear that for Europe, energy supply is a question of the highest importance. This is why the European Council meeting tomorrow will deal with this matter as one of its priorities.
We also convened an additional extraordinary Council meeting of energy ministers, to which you have alluded, in order to prepare for the European Council meeting in the best way possible. That meeting of energy ministers came up with very useful and helpful suggestions which will be discussed tomorrow and the day after.
It also became evident that, in connection with the gas dispute between Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, the question of energy supply is not only a question that we can discuss among ourselves. When I had the pleasure of reporting to the Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday it was very much stressed that this is a question of the foreign policy of the European Union. This is because we need to cooperate with our partners and with our neighbours in order to take their problems into account. It is important for us to emphasise the political and economic stability of the transit country, for example. We also need to include countries of supply and consumer countries in our debates.
This is why we have intensive relations in this connection with OPEC, Russia and other important countries such as China and India. We are also active as regards international instruments. I will just mention very briefly the International Energy Agency, the International Energy Forums and Euromed, which plays an important role. There are other important international agreements, such as for example the energy agreement with south-east Europe. I hope, Mr Chichester, that we will get the agreement of this House very soon, as we hope to receive this before the Ministers’ meeting in June.
There are of course also other important aspects to the security of energy supply, such as the question of the diversification of our energy sources, especially to include domestic energy sources, in particular, too, the question of renewable energy sources. Demand management, including improving the efficiency of energy use, is also of highest importance in this connection, however.
In talking to its partners, the Council regularly emphasises that adequate investment in infrastructure and exploration are also crucial. For this reason, the Council also considers it of the highest importance that the resolution of the European Parliament and the Council on trans-European energy networks should be adopted soon, since it will be impossible to diversify supply and hence have greater security of supply without resources to expand the European energy network. So far as the security of supply in particular is concerned, the Council has in the past already adopted legal provisions, which I will not mention in detail now for reasons of time. I will refer briefly also to the Directive on measures to safeguard security of natural gas supply, which was adopted in 2004.
Turning now to your question about alternative energy sources, Mr Chichester, the Council believes that two main components of energy policy deserve particular mention here, and I have already referred to them briefly: the question of diversification of fuel sources and energy efficiency. As has already been said in today’s debate – energy was a key element in the debate you have just concluded, and rightly so – the Member States must themselves decide on the energy mix they will choose as an expression of their national policies. Whatever the Member States decide, diversification of fuel sources naturally includes – and I think this is particularly important – diversification of supplier countries, so far as energy imports are concerned; but renewable energy sources are also particularly important here.
In this connection, the Council can also point to a whole series of instruments, which I shall mention only briefly here. Regarding the diversification of fuel sources, especially through the use of renewable energies, the Council and European Parliament have already adopted a Directive on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in 2001. I would also like to draw your attention in this connection to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the promotion of the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport. In December last year, agreement was also reached with the European Parliament on the draft directive on energy efficiency and energy services, which I hope can be adopted in the next few months; we are working to that end. So much on the question of energy saving."@en1
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