Brussels, 27/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 27 January, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic told MEPs at the European Parliament's environment committee (see EUROPE 11239 and other article in this edition) that the European Council agreement of October 2014 on the Climate/Energy framework for 2020-2030 forms the basis for the package of concrete proposals that the European Commission will present on 25 February to give body to the Energy Union.
“At least 40% reduction in our emissions (compared with 1990) as a binding objective, at least 27% renewables as an obligatory target and at least 27% energy efficiency as an indicative objective, 50% interconnection in Europe - to reach these objectives we will need to legislate, reform the ETS, make legislative proposals to reflect these demands for the non-ETS sector; and we will need to review the Energy Efficiency Directive. It's a large-scale legislative agenda. By the end of February we will present a text that will clearly describe how to achieve this transformation, and a roadmap with concrete action for setting up the Energy Union. This will have to be combined with the roadmap for Paris which will set out the EU's position and its diplomatic contacts by Paris. And a proposal will also be needed on 10% interconnection”, Sefcovic stated. He added that the Commission will make concrete proposals for each of the five pillars of the strategic framework for Energy Union. He showed confidence when speaking about the Paris conference, as long as the EU also does its work internally.
“The agreement on the Climate/Energy framework has opened the door for an ambitious agreement in Paris. How can we obtain this result and implement the obligations that stem from it? The road to Paris takes us to decarbonisation. We must not lose sight of the objective of reducing our emissions by 40%. Miguel Arias Cañete coordinated the EU's position in Lima. For the first time, the EU spoke with one and the same voice. This paves the way for a good agreement in Paris. But we must do our work at home - obtaining a good agreement on the creation of the market stability reserve to reform the emissions quotas trading system. The sooner we have a good agreement, the more it will be an asset in negotiations ahead of an agreement in Paris”, Sefcovic warned.
Replying to Matthias Groote MEP (S&D, Germany), Sefcovic recognised that “the Energy Union goes hand in hand with climate policy. We want the monitoring system to be simplified and sufficiently flexible to enable flexible ideas to progress on how to improve member states' action.” In the view of Bas Eickhout MEP (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands), the Commission should “put the political problems on the table” - in other words: - the fact that the Energy Union should be called the Energy and Climate Union, and that the energy efficiency objective should be binding; - how the EU could be first in renewables when it is far behind that for 2020 and beyond; - the fact that the “Energy Union will be a lot of waffle” as long as each member state is free to define its energy bundle. (AN)