Brussels, 02/12/2010 (Agence Europe) -Hungary will be taking over the reins of the presidency of the Council at the beginning of 2011. In the energy arena it will have to try hard to avoid comparisons with the country preceding its rotation in the presidency, Belgium. Paul Magnette has set about drawing up a balance sheet of the progress achieved by his presidency and outlined the agenda for the Energy Council on 3 December, to ministers of the European parliamentary energy committee on Thursday 2 December. He highlighted the necessity of continuing and increasing efforts in areas he had put at the centre of his presidency's action: consumer protection, energy efficiency and infrastructure. The Belgian minister can, nonetheless, boast of exercising a successful presidency in this field. His frankness, excellent knowledge of his dossiers, in addition to his social concerns for European consumers (who have been rather left out of the liberalisation process), also provided a breath of fresh air in the nascent EU energy policy.
Consumer protection. “I wanted this theme to be at the centre of our action. It was time to draw up a preliminary balance sheet to see whether the expected benefits from liberalisation had been real”, explained Magnette. The greatest number of complaints from consumers, highlighted by the European Consumers Bureau (BEUC), is identified in the energy sector, he explained, underlining that the work of this organisation had demonstrated the fact that energy poverty affected between 50 and 125 million people in terms of an energy access deficit and being unable to pay their bills. Magnette emphasised that 65 million Europeans spend more on energy than the average citizen and that 8% of Europeans currently suffer from delayed payments. For the first time ever, the Council of the EU will adopt conclusions on Friday, demanding that energy policy be more focused on consumers. Many more efforts will also be required through the Citizens Forum (London Forum) and the putting into place of national energy mediators who take into account energy poverty and vulnerable consumers. The Belgian minister also highlighted the fact that they needed to closely follow economic and social evaluations in the context of smart meters, before making mass investment in this area.
Energy efficiency. The Belgian minister declared that “this is a theme on which we may have certain fears that Europe has not made as much progress as it could have done. We can set ourselves and reach extremely ambitious targets… initial estimates do not make us very optimistic. If it continues on this track, Europe will be heading towards 9% energy savings by 2020 rather than the 20% target set out, even though it could attain 50% energy savings by 2020, according to the experts. We must ensure that this theme is endorsed by heads of state and government (Ed: during the European Council on 4 February) as a major priority. Europe must take over the leadership but it must also provide itself with the resources and prove its resolute determination”. In response to a question by Romana Jordan-Cizelj (EPP, Slovenia) about his preferences regarding the nature of the EU objectives on energy efficiency, Magnette did not hide the fact that he is (in a personal capacity) in favour of binding objectives. Nonetheless, he was keen to qualify his position, “before talking about binding objectives, it is first of all necessary to ensure that energy efficiency is the number one priority. It is much better to consume less than build pipelines. This is always the best policy in environmental and social terms. This is the objective that the EU should give itself: to be a world leader in this domain by 2030 and 2050”. The Belgian minister underlined the need to continue work on standardisation and explained: “We need to identify sectors of activity and production where there are still no standards. There has to be a positive normalisation effect in order to send out the right messages to industry. We are still committing stupid errors that we will have to pay for dearly in 20 years' time, when it is necessary to update”. He also underlined the importance of R&D in technologies that aimed to develop a high-energy performance level.
Investment in infrastructure. Magnette pointed out: “It is necessary to create an integrated market, to ensure energy security and the transition to a more sustainable energy cluster. According to the assessment made by the Climate Foundation, we have to make €52 billion a year in investments, in order to meet the challenges in this area”. He then informed MEPs that on Friday, the commissioner for energy, Günther Oettinger, is expected to draw up a balance sheet of the progress achieved in infrastructure projects involving electricity, gas, wind energy and carbon sinks and storage, to which the EU has provided a boost through funding of almost €4 billion granted this year as part of the European 2008 recovery plan. (E.H./transl.fl)