Helsinki clashes with Brussels on energy efficiency delay
LUCIA KUBOSOVA
29.09.2006 @ 09:57 CET
Brussels has come under pressure from the Finnish EU presidency and environmental groups to re-consider its planned delay of a major proposal on how the bloc's member states should curb energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020.
The energy efficiency blueprint - aiming at saving around €60 billion a year in unnecessary energy costs - was originally supposed to see the light of day in mid-October.
The EU aims to save 20 percent by 2020, but the details are causing delays (Photo: European Community, 2006)
But European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso rejected the latest version of the document because it contained too many individual measures from energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs and lacked focus, according to media reports.
While his spokesman argued the scheme could be ready for the meeting of EU energy ministers on 23 November, it could be delayed until January and published along with the commission's energy strategy paper - the Brussels-based weekly European Voice reported.
The later timing would not fit in with the plans of the current EU presidency however - Finland has put energy high on its six-month agenda and wants to see a first debate of the proposal at the November ministerial meeting.
"We would like to see this ready before the council although it is a commission decision. Energy is a very important issue for the Finnish presidency," a spokeswoman of the country's prime minister told the Financial Times.
"Green 10" - a group of environmental NGOs - has also raised an alarm against the planned delays and urged the EU's top regulator to publish the long-awaited proposal "in the next weeks."
"We strongly recommend you to grab this opportunity to resolutely affirm the primary role of energy efficiency as the precondition of a future energy policy for Europe, not an option among many others," they said to the commission chief.
The environmentalists argue the efficiency plan should be ambitious as well as quick, with legally-binding targets such as maximum energy consumption standards for all new vehicles.
EU leaders to talk energy in Lahti
Energy is expected to top the agenda at an informal meeting of European leaders in Lahti, Finland on 20 October, along with innovation and illegal immigration.
Russian president Vladimir Putin will join the bloc's president and prime ministers for the gathering, with the Finnish leader Matti Vanhanen hoping the rendezvous will serve as a brainstorming session on the energy partnership between the major powers.
"We want to hear how president Putin sees the development of Russia's energy sector and the relationship between the EU and Russia in this field," Mr Vanhanen said on Thursday (28 September).
"The energy relationship between the EU and Russia needs to be built on openness, reciprocity and fair-play. A strong commitment to these principles would also encourage the foreign investment that is needed to develop the Russian energy sector," he added.
