Brussels, 31/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a report submitted to the Energy Council on Monday 31 May 2010, the European Commission regrets that the trans-European energy networks (TEN-E) are responding 'too slowly' to modern energy challenges and are ill-equipped to achieve the EU's targets for 2020 and 2050. Implementation of the TEN-E in 2007-2009 made a positive contribution to the achievement of selected programmes by giving them political visibility and making it easier for them to raise funding from the financial markets, the new EU energy policy system provides neither the resources nor the flexibility they need and it is now imperative to make a full root-and-branch examination of the very the concept of the TEN-E system, explains the Commission, adding that back in 2008, it had suggested introducing a new system to deal with the increasing energy security and investment problems for the TEN-E. In the course of this year, the Commission will look into introducing a new system to take full account of the importance of infrastructure for the achievement of policy objectives.
Given the limited funding for TEN-E (€22 million a year in 2007-2009), the Commission is pleased that 9 of the 32 gas and electricity infrastructure projects of European interest had been completed and only a few of them are seriously lagging behind. Based on the conclusions in its report, the Commission has drawn up the following priorities, to be examined in detail during the upcoming review of the TEN_E: a) Ensuring a better definition of strategic priorities for EU energy infrastructure. If the EU is to achieve its energy policy objectives, including the 20-20-20 energy/climate commitments, then energy grids and networks will have to take on a more European dimension to expand and ensure the proper functioning of an internal market in energy, increasing security of energy supplies and making it easier to apply new technology. Networks must be made more flexible so that grids can distribute renewable energy, locally-generated energy and smart energy demand technologies, like the EU's 'super-grid,' along with carbon capture and storage. The foreign policy aspects of energy infrastructure, diversifying energy import and supply sources, should also be studied, mainly gas and also for oil; b) A political debate is needed on the EU infrastructure's future priorities, examining whether the regional initiatives approach should continue, with focus on issues like the Southern Corridor and the inter-connection plan in the Baltic; c) Increasing cooperation among Member States involved in individual projects at both planning and political decision-making level. The Commission is looking into the option of setting up a central authorisation body in each Member State to speed up implementation of cross-border projects and possibly other projects; d) Improving the EU's infrastructure investment attraction strategy to cope with the scale of the challenges. The approach is still to fund grid and network infrastructure by levying charges on end-users, but public funding also needs to be examined, particularly for areas where the market is clearly failing. Better use and coordination could be made of the funding the EU currently provides. (E.H. trans fl)