Brussels, 18/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - One of the flagship areas of the Danish Presidency of the Council, the shift to a more environmental Europe, will be at the heart of discussions at the informal meeting of European energy ministers in Horsens on 19-20 April. Their colleagues in environment will have previously discussed a number of related matters - 7th action programme, Rio+20 and the ETS (see related article).
Under the chairmanship of Danish Minister Martin Lidegaard, energy ministers will try to move forward in difficult negotiations on the energy efficiency directive, with the aim of reaching a first reading agreement with the European Parliament before the end of June. Lidegaard has asked his colleagues to demonstrate some give-and-take on the compromise proposal drafted by his staff but also expects flexibility to be shown by MEPs who, with the adoption of the Turmes report at the end of February (see EUROPE 10563), amended the Commission's initial text (see EUROPE 10403) in trialogue discussions.
Ministers will then move on to discuss European energy policy to 2030 and the energy roadmap to 2050, which was brought forward by the Commission in December of last year (see EUROPE 10517) and which sets guidelines for reducing carbon emissions in the EU by 80-95% by 2050. (EH/transl.rt)