Brussels, 04/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Less than one hour of discussion brought the Belgian Presidency success allowing it to reach an agreement (a "general guideline" in the absence of the Parliament's opinion awaited for February) on the proposal of directive relating to energy efficiency of buildings. This is an issue that was particularly close to the heart of the Belgian Secretary of State for Energy, Olivier Deleuze. He considers the text is an important response to the demands of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Buildings account for some 40% of energy consumption in the Union. Promoting energy efficiency in buildings would therefore be equivalent to opening up potential and significant savings in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For the rest, Tuesday's Energy Council will have allowed ministers to move forward on the question of liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets.
Regarding the energy efficiency of buildings, it was finally the proposal of compromise from the Belgian Presidency that won over the Council (see EUROPE of 1 December, p.9). Under the terms of the agreement, compulsory minimum energy efficiency norms will be imposed on new buildings of over 1000 m2 and on existing buildings of the same surface area that are undergoing major renovation work. An energy certificate, valid 10 years, will be compulsorily required in the case of construction, sale or renting of a building. Boilers of 20 kW capacity or more should be the subject of regular inspection. The agreement also provides for the establishment of a method for calculating energy efficiency in each Member State.
Contrary to all expectations, the Belgian Presidency will also have allowed progress to be made, or to be brought out of deadlock, on the issue of liberalising the gas and electricity markets (see EUROPE of 13 March 2001, p.12 and 14 March 2001, p.7). No agreement has of course been reached as to the date when these markets will be fully open to competition, but ministers agreed that the Member States must guarantee a broad range of public service obligations. Concerning the regulation authorities, they agreed on the choice of a model, whereby the Member States would have the possibility of fixing the appropriate institutional framework within the limits set by the directive regarding follow-up obligations, approval of methods used for calculating transport and distribution pricing, and the rapid settlement of disputes. The Fifteen, moreover, felt that the ex ante definition of pricing and tariff systems would make it possible to reach a good compromise between effectiveness and transparency. Concerning the independence of network managers, they also considered that, for electricity, the idea of combining legal requirements on access to resources and compliance measures was acceptable. As far as gas is concerned, consensus was reached on the need for the formula regarding third party access to networks and transit to be sufficiently detailed to take account of specific transit situations. Finally, regarding the conditions for access to the network for crossborder electricity trade, it was agreed that a provisional mechanism should be introduced with regards pricing for energy transit. This mechanism should be set in place as soon as possible (in 2002) to serve as a pilot experiment allowing Member States and the Commission to better define the permanent mechanism set out in the regulation.
Generally speaking, the different delegations confirmed the favourable welcome that the different Council formations -including the Energy Council in May - had reserved to the Commission's Green Paper on energy supply security (see EUROPE of 29 November 2000, p.9). Nonetheless, there is still divergence, mainly concerning nuclear energy production, to which Austria and Ireland are strongly opposed, and with regard to the Community management of strategic oil stocks. In order to combat price fluctuations, most Member States clearly expressed their views on the need to strengthen energy efficiency and to develop dialogue between producers and consumers rather than resort to the joint management of stocks. The principle of monitoring demand, which can also lead to price stability and which involves the promotion of energy efficiency and the internalisation of external costs (environmental and social) of energy used, also received a positive welcome from most delegations. Following the attacks on 11 September, the ministers felt that supply security was now a "physical" factor, namely the protection of production and transport means. They agreed on the need to set in place an information exchange system on measures taken to ensure security while noting that such a system could only be implemented if there were agreement on provisions relating to the confidentiality of data forwarded.
Over lunch and in the wake of the COP7, the Council had an exchange of views on climate change. The Commission presented ministers with its proposal aimed at establishing in the EU a system of trade in greenhouse gas emission rights. The Council also had a policy debate on the new system of State aid to the coal industry. Germany and Spain would like aid to the reduction in activity to be possible and planned until 2010, while the proposal provides for a review of the system in 2007 (see EUROPE of 18 July, p. 12 and 27 July, p.12). EUROPE will return to this issue.