Brussels, 06/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Energy Council reached a political agreement on Tuesday on the promotion of renewable energy sources, which provides for 22.1% of all electricity consumed, and 12% of energy consumption in general, to be covered in 2010 by renewable sources, instead of 14% and 6% respectively at the present time. Council President Christian Perret welcomed this "substantial move forward" and the "considerable effort" made by some Member States for a high utilisation threshold of renewable energies at national level.
The draft directive provides for: 1) national targets for 2010; 2) the setting in place, after two years, of a certificate of origin system for electricity generated from renewable energy sources; 3) flanking measures to boost renewable energy in fair competition conditions; 4) the obligation for the European Commission to control national aid regimes.
The Council distanced itself from several of the points of the position defined at first reading by the Parliament, in the Rothe Report adopted in November. According to Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes, the author of an own-initiative report on renewable energies adopted in March, conciliation procedure could be opened between MEPs and Council before the second reading. It would cover the following issues: 1) non-binding nature of the targets; 2) State aid; 3) priority access granted to renewable energies on the networks.
The main points of the compromise defined in Council are:
Objectives. The Member States set themselves non-binding national targets, despite the position of the European Parliament, Germany, Denmark and, to a certain extent, Italy, which would have preferred binding objectives. Austria and Luxembourg above all insisted, on the contrary, for objectives to be indicative. Some Member States (Austria, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Luxembourg) accepted targets higher than those they would have preferred initially, on condition that certain specific elements regarding their supplies of renewable energies are taken into account. These elements include, for example, the climatic conditions for the countries that produce large amounts of hydraulic energy, like Austria and Sweden, and the integration of energy from the use of urban waste for Italy and Luxembourg.
National targets were set as follows: 78% for Austria, 6% for Belgium, 29% for Denmark, 31% for Finland, 21% for France, 12.5% for Germany, 20.1% for Greece, 13.2% for Ireland, 25% for Italy, 5.7% for Luxembourg, 9% for the Netherlands, 39% for Portugal, 29.4% for Spain, 60% for Sweden and 10% for the United Kingdom.
State aid. The Council specifies in a note annexed to the draft directive that the Commission should ensure there is consistency between the aims set out in the directive and the guidelines on State aid in the environment sector, which should be adopted by the Commission on 13 or 20 December. Along the lines of the European Parliament, the Member States urged for the guidelines to be valid beyond the five years foreseen by the Commission, in order to allow long-term investment. The Council president informed the press that the Council reserves its position for now on the draft guidelines that will be presented to it during the Swedish Presidency.
The draft directive, moreover, stipulates that the Commission will, in four years from now, present a report on national aid to renewable energies, if necessary with a proposal for harmonisation of the aid systems comprising a 7-year transition period. Germany and Spain, that currently apply guaranteed prices for energy produced from renewable sources, insisted on keeping these national aid schemes for a longer period. France and Luxembourg, where price guarantee projects are on the table, also seemed to follow along these lines. "Efforts in favour of renewable energies must be accompanied by aid so that they do not just remain a pious hope. (…) National systems for supporting renewable energies must therefore be taken into account", remarked Christian Perret.
Definition of renewable energies. The Council text defines renewable energy sources as: non-fossil energy, produced by wind, solar, geothermal, wave and sea, and hydraulic power, as well as biomass power (from the biodegradable part of agricultural and forest waste), methane gases from landfill and sewage treatment plants, and biogases. The Parliament had doubts about the "renewable" nature of energies from landfill sites.
Legal base. The Commission agreed that the future directive should be based on Article 175.1 relating to the environment, in order to allow the compromise to be adopted in Council.