The European Parliament's industry, research and energy committee gave its unanimous blessing to European Commission proposals to use unspent money from the European Energy Recovery Programme (EERP). The initiative will create a dedicated financial instrument to support regional and local projects in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Since the programme started in 2009 with a budget of €3.98 billion, money has been allocated to energy interconnections, offshore wind and carbon capture and storage (CCS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) demonstration plants as a priority.
But the Commission now estimates that €115 million will go unspent until the end-of-year deadline, which can be freed for energy efficiency and renewables projects.
MEPs argued that the instrument will create new jobs in regions, which will make them more attractive places to live and aid social integration.
Under the plan, eligible projects will need to have a rapid and significant impact on economic recovery, boost energy security and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Such projects could involve combined heat and power (CHP; see EurActiv LinksDossier) and district heating networks, grid-connected decentralised renewable production amd clean public transport and electric vehicles, as well as electricity storage solutions, smart metering and smart grids, MEPs said.
The new rules will go some way towards correcting the bias towards fossil-fuels that MEPs had detected in the programme. Along with CCS, they had insisted on including energy efficiency and smart cities.
The fund will be managed by public financial intermediaries in order to maximise short-term impact. MEP Antonio Cancian (European People's Party; Italy), shadow rapporteur on the Parliament's opinion, argued that the EU funds could later be enhanced with other budgetary resources and leveraged by the European Investment Bank and the private sector by up to €4-5 billion.
"Currently, this type of innovative fund is limited to the energy sector […], but I hope that in the future it could represent the start of a new principle which can be replicated in other sectors such as transport, with much greater budgets and public-private partnerships," he said.
The Parliament as a whole will vote on the rule changes in October.
