Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-23-Speech-2-534"
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"en.20101123.40.2-534"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in a few weeks, we will be submitting to you, the European Parliament, the Council and the Member States our proposal on how we plan to achieve a 20% increase in energy efficiency. Looking at the three targets which you have set us, with regard to the 20% reduction in CO
emissions, we are making good progress towards this objective. I am sure that, if we continue with our current efforts, we will reach or even exceed the target of 20% less CO
in 10 years.
On the subject of 20% renewable energy, we are also doing well, although the progress made in the different Member States varies. Some Member States were already a long way ahead when compared with the reference year. For example, Austria had a 23% share of renewable energy five years ago and is expected to reach a level of 34% by 2020. In contrast, the figure for the United Kingdom was only 1.3% and for Malta 0%, which meant that these countries had to start virtually from scratch. The leaders include Sweden, which is aiming for 49%, and Finland and Portugal with a goal of 38%. The Baltic States, with targets of 25%, 40% and 23%, have also been very successful and their figures are above the European average in this important area.
The target of a 20% increase in energy efficiency is the one which gives me most concern. This involves making intelligent energy savings and using energy in a targeted way. I will be happy to talk to Parliament about this during the first quarter of next year when I will be able to submit to you our proposal for achieving a 20% improvement in energy efficiency.
You mentioned the media. In fact, on the subject of renewable energy and consumers, more can be done by industry and investors, both investors in technology and financial investors. I have a proposal for you. I am planning to visit the three Baltic States next spring. I will be happy to attend a conference of representatives of the media, the banks and business, if you can suggest suitable candidates, in order to increase awareness in your country, using my modest resources, and to open up opportunities for new programmes and cofinancing.
The next question was: What do I think of a European energy network? I want to answer this very openly. If you look at the transport infrastructure in Europe, we have roads, motorways, railways, the European airspace, with its large and small regional airports, and major ports, such as Genoa, Marseilles, Hamburg and Rotterdam. There are also terminals for liquid natural gas and for oil in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic, the North Sea and the Atlantic. In addition, we have a digital infrastructure for information, communications and navigation, including our mobile phone network. In comparison to these areas, our energy networks are lagging far behind. We can transport televisions, pig carcasses, tinned foods and other goods from Portugal to Latvia and from Holland to Greece, we can transport workers and tourists and we can transfer information and financial services, but our gas and electricity networks are still divided up along the lines of 19th century principalities. We need to integrate the markets in the Baltic States, Finland, central Europe and Greece, before Serbia and Croatia join the European Union. We also need bridges and interconnectors to transport electricity in both directions between Spain, France and Germany. Over the next 20 years, we must put in place the financing and the legislation to ensure that our transport networks for electricity and gas are of the same quality and have the same capacity as our road and rail networks and our airspace, which can be used to transport goods and give people freedom of movement. Otherwise, we will not have security of supply or be able to show solidarity in an emergency. We will not be in a position to exchange storage capacity or establish renewable energy facilities in the best locations and bring the electricity to the centres of population. In addition, we will not have the competition which consumers want or be able to establish an internal market, which has always been one of the basic principles of the European Union and which must become a reality for gas and electricity.
For this reason, I strongly support a major initiative to develop the transport networks for electricity, gas and oil."@en1
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