Brussels, 10/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The General Affairs Council adopted guidelines on Monday for the funding of international energy cooperation projects in the Synergy Programme, setting the upper funding limit at EUR 250,000.
The Commission decided at the end of 2000 to suspend calls for tender for Synergy projects since it felt that spreading the funding out among a string of little projects would make it impossible to apply the new strict funding rules. In order to cut the number of projects down, it proposed to set a minimum funding threshold of EUR 400,000 per project (rather than the average EUR 150,000 before then) and adopt guidelines outlining two priorities, namely security of supply and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Member States opposed the upper limit put forward by the Commission in September 2000 and since no consensus was forthcoming, the last Energy Council and then the Permanent Representatives' Committee asked for their reservations to be mentioned in an Annex to the Council Decision. The General Affairs Council set the ceiling at EUR 250,000 and "noted" the Commission's reservation whereby a ceiling of 400,000 would have helped improve the effectiveness of the Synergy Programme.