Brussels, 25/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, a seminar bringing together Energy Ministers from the European Union, the Vice President of the European Commission, Loyola de Palacio, as well as a certain number of leading figures form the energy sector, will begin in Pampelune (Spain). During this informal ministerial level event that finishes on Sunday two themes will be tackled: the promotion of renewable energies in Europe, and European gas and electricity infrastructures.
The seminar will be divided into two. On Saturday, a session will be exclusively reserved for Ministers. An initial work session will focus on the interconnection and Trans-European energy networks. A monitoring procedure for tendering at a Union level will also be discussed. Such procedures exist at different degrees at a national level in order to determine the necessary infrastructures for ensuring safety of supplies and public service obligations but this is limited to interconnections with other systems. Ministers will also be debating the follow-up to the European agreement reached at the Barcelona Summit on the existence of a minimum level of interconnection between each Member State. Infrastructures are part of long-term investment and Ministers will be looking at the possibility of defining the guidelines for facilitating their funding. The issue of reducing the disparities in the cross-border tariffs in the natural gas sector will also be examined, as well as the clarification of criteria for applying competition rules, in the knowledge that different rhythms for opening up and integrating the national markets in the European market are likely to create undesirable situations regarding cross-border investments.
The second session will focus on perspectives in the renewable energies field and in energy efficiency. Member States are expected to attempt to answer three key questions: quantifying environmental costs; the issue of regulatory mechanisms on the internalisation of costs in an environment determined by principles of free enterprise and contractual freedom; energy efficiency, the relevance of maintaining promotion by way of economic incentives on both supply (co-generation, for example) and demand (incentives for using new more efficient consumer technologies by way of management programmes and demand in certain sectors that create a certain price inelasticity).
An open debate will be held on Sunday on the participation of companies and institutions in the energy sector. Two round tables are scheduled too: "The Internal Market in the European Economy" and the "Energy of the Future". Figures from the energy sector will be participating. These include Lord Browne of Madingley Freng, Executive President f the BP group, Donald Johnson, Secretary General of OECD, David Garman, Deputy Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies from the USA Department of Energy and Juan Iranzo, Director General of the Institute of Economic Studies.