Commissioner Piebalgs's "five-point plan" to counter rising oil prices actually consists of several actions grouped under five headings:
- Reducing Europe's demand for energy
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- following the publication of the Energy Efficiency Green Paper in June 2005, the Commission wants to present an action plan on energy savings early 2006;
- it wants to speed up the adoption and implementation of measures, already in the pipeline, such as the Energy Services Directive and the Buildings Directive;
- and it intends to promote more international action on energy efficiency.
- Switching to alternative energy sources
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- the Commission will present a Biomass Action Plan before the end of the year and a Communication on bio-fuels early 2006;
- it will push for an increase of research budgets on renewable energies, clean coal and carbon sequestration:
- financial support for renewables in the member states will be under review.
- Increasing transparency and predictability of oil markets
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- to counter speculation, the commission will publish twice monthly better statistics on EU oil security stocks
- a new DG TREN "Oil and Gas Market Observatory Unit" will be created;
- dialogues with OPEC, Russia and Norway will be intensified;
- a "Fossil Fuels Forum" will be set up to improve oil and gas market predictability.
- Increasing the supply of oil and gas
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- the Commission will work with producers and European oil companies to promote a better investment climate
- Better co-ordination of strategic oil reserves
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- in view of the fact that several EU member states are not members of the International Energy Agency, more coordination will be needed.
