Tag: energy policy

Germany's Günther Oettinger, who has been nominated for the European Commission's energy portfolio, sought to prove his European credentials at his confirmation hearing by outlining plans to enforce energy solidarity and spelling an end to bilateral energy deals with suppliers such as Russia.

The EU and US have held the first meeting of a new transatlantic Energy Council, after the US President Barack Obama and EU leaders had agreed to establish the new energy forum for cooperation during a summit on Tuesday.

Sweden plans to step up Europe's energy-efficiency legislation as it takes over the rotating six-month EU presidency at the beginning of July.

G8 energy ministers meeting in Rome on 24-25 May called for continued investment in oil and discussed energy policies that will help weather the financial storm.

The European Parliament will mobilise a majority against Commission President's José Manuel Barroso's five billion euro stimulus plan, Claude Turmes, vice-president of the Greens / European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament, told EurActiv in an interview.

A recent plan by the European Commission to allocate five billion euro of so-called "unspent EU money" to clean energy and broadband projects antagonised the bloc's foreign ministers yesterday (23 February) and embarrassed its initiators too, EurActiv has learned.

The European Parliament yesterday (3 February) endorsed a comprehensive blueprint for the bloc's future energy policy, including more ambitious targets on climate change and renewable energies in proposals due to be submitted to EU leaders next month.

Despite improved efficiency in electricity and heat production and a cleaner energy mix, the power sector still produces 80% of European greenhouse gases, putting significant strain on the climate, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) study shows.

Energy policy should rank among the "top priorities of the EU budget," claimed Budget and Financial Programming Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite at a conference yesterday (12 November 2008) on reform of the EU budget.

"There is still some way to go" to translate the progress made by EU energy policy in recent years into "efficient policy responses," writes Jørgen Henningsen, senior advisor on energy and environmental issues at the European Policy Centre (EPC).

Questions are being raised about the quality and effectiveness of evaluating the costs, risks and benefits of the Commission's impact assessment on the third energy liberalisation package, says Jacopo Torriti in a May 2008 report for the European University Institute.

The potential for further energy cooperation between the countries of North Africa and the EU is 'obvious' as the bloc seeks to diversify its sources of supply, but future energy relations between the two regions should be at company rather than state level, said Professor Jean-Marie Chevalier of Paris-Dauphine University in an interview with EurActiv France.

The Commission's Director-General for Energy and Transport, Matthias Ruete, spoke with EurActiv on 28 September concerning the Commission's efforts to create an internal market for energy in the EU. Ruete was upbeat about the creation of more European companies in the sector, despite efforts by some member states to create 'national champions', and hopes that EU legislators will agree quickly on the different aspects of the Commission's third energy package in order to attract crucial investments.

Matthias Ruete is Director-General of the Energy and Transport Directorate at the European Commission.  

Commission leaders have defended their plans for a radical shake-up of the EU's energy market presented two weeks ago and thrown their weight behind nuclear power as one of the drivers of a "third industrial revolution" that should lead Europe towards a "low-carbon age".

The Commission's package of proposed regulations to further liberalise the EU's energy market, unveiled yesterday (19 September) in Brussels, has provoked spirited reactions from a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

In its new publication ‘Biofuels for Transport’, the Worldwatch Institute examines how biofuels can reach their potential to strengthen energy security, promote economic development and protect the environment.

The Commission has suggested introducing a European Charter on the Rights of Energy Consumers. However, the German Centre for European Policy (CEP) states in a July 2007 paper that such a charter would undermine freedom of contract and disturb market development.

The EU can no longer claim to be building a 'strategic partnership' with Russia that is based on common values and needs to adjust its strategy to new realities, argues Katinka Barysch in a July 2007 policy brief for the Centre for European Reform (CER).

Europe has embarked on an ambitious plan to cut its energy consumption by 20% by 2020 in a bid to reduce its dependency on imported oil and gas and slash its energy bill by an estimated 100 billion euro every year. If it delivers, the plan would also prevent 780 million tonnes of CO2 from being emitted in the atmosphere, or twice the amount the EU agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol.

The quest for secure, competitive, and environmentally friendly energy supplies will require tough choices as the objectives imply that a number of trade-offs are necessary, write Lars-Hendrick Röller, Juan Delgado and Hans W. Friederiszick for the Bruegel think-tank.

A new chapter offered by the election of President Sarkozy in France and the elevation of Gordon Brown to UK prime minister provides a chance of better transatlantic relations over Iran and energy security, claims Simon Henderson – director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy – in a June essay for the Transatlantic Institute.

The greenhouse-gas emission impacts from different corn ethanol processing plant types can vary significantly, new research from the US Centre for Transportation Research reveals - from a 3% increase if coal is the process fuel to a 52% reduction if wood chips are used.

Despite Commission promises in 2006 to propose binding targets for renewables on heating and cooling, these can no longer be expected. It will now be up to member states to decide on the targets as part of upcoming national action plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emmissions by 20% in 2020. 

In this article for think-tank Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP), German Economics and TechnologyMinister Michael Glos highlights the key elements of the German EU Presidency's energy policy.