Le sommet européen sur l'énergie : Un nouveau départ pour l'Europe?

In what was his last appearance at a European summit, French President Jacques Chirac said that the adoption of the energy action plan was "an extremely positive result" and "one of the great moments of Europe’s history".

German Chancellor and current holder of the EU Presidency, Angela Merkel, expressed her conviction that the summit agreement on climate change and energy will "open the door to a new dimension of European co-operation in the years to come".

Merkel said that the energy action plan "will give the initial spark for a third technological revolution", describing the targets on climate change and renewables as both "ambitious and credible". "We’ll be going down completely new roads as far as technology and innovation are concerned," she predicted.

Speaking at the Institute of Political Science in Paris on 10 March, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called the summit a "great success for the EU".

"The Summit results are without doubt a major breakthrough," Dimas said. "The agreement by the heads of state was a historic step, which will now need to be followed up by concrete policies," he added, saying that forthcoming discussions on a burden sharing agreement for individual national CO2 reduction targets as well as measures to reduce emissions from the aviation sector, fuel sector and new cars "will need to be developed and implemented".

European employers’ organisation BusinessEurope was critical of the summit decisions, saying that the "very ambitious goals" on renewables and climate change "need to be checked against the economic and technological possibilities" of European industry.

Ernest-Antoine Seillière, president of BusinessEurope, said: "We are supportive of a general increase in the use of renewable energy, but meeting this binding target must not threaten an energy supply at competitive prices. Implementation must leave all other energy options open, in particular the use of nuclear energy."

The decision for a 20% renewable energy target was welcomed by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) as "a powerful response to the looming climate and energy crisis". "Europe now has a real opportunity to change its energy-supply structure towards a much larger share of indigenous, renewable resources, reduced import dependence and less exposure to unpredictable fuel prices," EWEA said in a statement.

But it added that real work is now to start and called for "legal stability" for renewable energies in the long run. "Today's decision is only the beginning of a legislative process that could deliver significant results if designed and implemented successfully. A suitable legal framework now needs to be rapidly adopted in order to reach the 20% target."

EWEA further added that it was disappointed with the summit results on energy liberalisation, saying "fair grid access for new entrants" was "a prerequisite" for a well-functioning internal market. "It is unfortunate that the heads of state displayed a lack of commitment to real competition in electricity, by rejecting the European Commission's proposal for full ownership unbundling of production and transmission activities in the electricity sector," EWEA said in a statement.

The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) said it "encourages Europe's striving for leadership on climate change" and believes that its products and research capabilities "can play a decisive role" in the fight against global warming.  

"For example, the chemical industry is essential to the manufacture of biofuels, lightweight high-performance materials for transportation or enhanced housing insulation," CEFIC said.

However, CEFIC believes that more effort should be made to improve the EU’s CO2-emissions trading scheme, saying that, in its current form, the scheme leads to "huge" and "unjustified" "windfall profits" for energy producers at the expense of energy-consuming industries, including the chemicals sector.

"The high energy prices –  which result to a significant extent from malfunctioning energy markets in combination with the ETS - pose an immediate threat to the global competitiveness of the European chemical industry", said CEFIC Director-General Alain Perroy. "This is why transitional measures for energy-intensive sectors are needed until energy markets function properly."

The European Association of metal industries, Eurometaux, agreed, calling for "transitional measures for energy-intensive industries". "The situation is urgent, as electricity prices in most member states have increased more than 150% since 2002," Eurometaux warned. "Industry cannot wait for new market regulations to come into effect."

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace hailed the EU for taking "a front seat on climate and clean energy", calling the summit’s new greenhouse-gas reduction targets "the biggest such decision since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol".

"EU leaders deserve top marks for pushing climate change to the top of the agenda and recommending a greenhouse-gas emission cut for Europe of 30% by 2020; other nations should now sign up and follow their lead."

However, Greenpeace joined other environmental groups in saying that the EU’s unilateral 20% greenhouse gas reduction target was insufficient to meet the challenge posed by global warming.

"It is disappointing that EU leaders didn't go further to cut down on Europe's carbon dioxide emissions," said Jan Kowalzig, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe. "Their effort is particularly tame in light of warnings from the world's scientific and economic experts."

"The targets must be translated into a shift of investments towards green technologies, rather than to nuclear power stations," said Stephan Singer, head of the European Climate and Energy Unit at WWF. "It is clear that the targets decided today will only be achieved with solid laws, measures and incentives."