Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-04-Speech-1-241-000"

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"− Mr President, the Commission very much welcomes this own-initiative report on energy infrastructure priorities for 2020 and beyond. It is a topic that is of course very high on the agenda and I would like to thank the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs for their commitment and constructive cooperation. Last week, as you know, the Commission adopted our proposal for the next multiannual framework; it provides for EUR 9.1 billion to be dedicated to energy infrastructures for the period 2014-2020 as part of a common infrastructure fund. This acknowledges the need for specific EU funding for energy infrastructures in order to deliver on our common energy and climate targets but also to ensure continued and secure supply of competitive energy to all European citizens. The Commission warmly welcomes the European Parliament’s support for a fund such as outlined in your resolution on the MFF. The Commission also appreciates the recommendations, including in the report discussed today, regarding the prioritisation of energy infrastructure projects, the acceleration of permit-granting procedures and better involvement of interested stakeholders as well as the regulation of cross-border infrastructure and financing. We will take all this into due consideration in the process of developing the forthcoming legislative proposal for a regulation on energy infrastructure development, which is scheduled for the autumn of this year. We look forward to cooperating with the Parliament on this new proposal and to your support in the efforts to develop the grids Europe needs for 2020 and beyond. Energy networks are at the heart of our energy system. Without secure intelligence and sustainable energy networks we cannot meet our climate goals and our energy targets in Europe. Within the next decades our energy system will therefore need to go through a deep transformation process that will bring huge challenges but also opportunities in the way we generate, transport, distribute and consume energy. In almost any possible future scenario, energy infrastructures will play the key role as a catalyst enabling us to meet our emission reduction objectives. Furthermore, as the European Council in February confirmed, they will also be crucial in ensuring that solidarity between Member States becomes operational, that alternative supply routes materialise and that renewables will develop. The new EU energy infrastructure policy is needed to change the way in which networks are planned and developed in the European Union. This is why the European Parliament’s own-initiative report on energy infrastructure is so timely and important. In November last year the Commission adopted a communication outlining our vision for such a new policy, the strategies and priorities to be pursued, and I would like to recall here what is needed. We need to build grids connecting the huge offshore wind energy potential in the northern seas to consumption centres in northern and central Europe. We need to diversify our gas supplies, sources, counterparts and routes with the construction of the southern corridor. We need to develop interconnections in south-western Europe with a view to integrating renewable energies and increasing the flexibility of gas flows in the region. We need to fully integrate the Baltic electricity and gas market into the European market, thus ending the isolation of energy islands, and we need to strengthen the regional network in central-eastern and south-eastern Europe. We need now to move from priorities to concrete projects of European interest, from plans on drawing boards to consultation, permit granting, financing and construction on the ground, and that is why our forthcoming legislative proposal on energy infrastructure will be so important. An essential element when implementing infrastructure policies is ensuring financing. It is estimated that over EUR 200 billion are needed in the coming years, and not all this investment will just happen by itself."@en1
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