Brussels, 19/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - A few days ahead of the European Council of 26 and 27 June, the diplomatic and climatic ballet is stepping up at the highest level of the EU, although no decisions are expected from the summit on plans for an integrated Climate/Energy action framework 2030. The bilaterals and discussions behind closed doors are underway between Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and the capitals (18-20 June). These will allow the president to put the finishing touches to the progress report he will present to the heads of state and government, as the March European Council requested. The summary of the debates of the Environment and Energy Council of 12 and 13 May will help to strike the delicate balance needed between the 28 to allow a decision to be taken in October.
Criteria to allow a fair share-out of effort among the member states, a mechanism to fight carbon leakage from the high energy-consuming sectors, the impact of the measures proposed (a binding reduction of at least 40% in emissions by 2030 and a European target of 27% for renewables) on each member state will be debated. But it is the revision of the energy efficiency directive and how this directive can feed into this framework which is expected to dominate the debate (see EUROPE 11103). The draft conclusions of the European Council stress that the Commission was asked to present its proposal in July and reiterates, without giving any figures, that the objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be fully in line with the target agreed to by the EU for 2050.
José Manuel Barroso and Commissioners Oettinger and Hedegaard met on 18 June to agree on 27% as an indicative target to be put forward for energy efficiency. “A 27% target is desperately low and a long way from the EU's energy-saving potential”, the NGOs Friends of the Earth and WWF lamented on Thursday. (AN)