Brussels, 12/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - Wednesday's Energy Council is unlikely to be overly eventful. Political agreement is expected on the proposed directive on co-generation. The proposals on the security of the EU's oil and gas supplies, which have already been discussed at length, will be the subject of a political debate. Conclusions are expected on the EU's relations in the field of energy with third countries (Russia, Euro-Mediterranean co-operation, south-east Europe and the Balkans, Nordic dimensions). Lastly, over lunch, Ministers will go into detail on the EU-Russia energy talks, with a view to the Summit of 31 May in Saint-Petersburg, and will discuss relations between oil-producing and oil-consuming countries.
Co-generation: the Council should reach political agreement on the proposed directive to create a framework promoting high-yield co-generation in the internal energy market (see EUROPE of 18 July, p.9). The European Parliament is to hold its debate on the proposal at first reading (codecision) in Strasbourg on Monday evening. The main unresolved question remains that of the handling of electricity produced via co-generation in terms of the electric grid (access, transport, distribution). Whereas the Commission wants it to be handled in exactly the same way as energy from renewable sources, various delegations oppose this. At Wednesday's Coreper, Member States seemed to be in agreement on two other points: 1) calculations methods to define high-yield co-generation; 2) efficiency thresholds to assign to the co-generation units.
Security of the EU's oil and gas supplies: there will be a political debate on the two proposed directives aiming to reduce the EU's dependence on third countries for energy. Parliament will be able to take position on these proposals at first reading (codecision), at its plenary session in June. On the basis of a Presidency questionnaire, the Council will try to resolve the outstanding issues. As regards oil, it is largely a matter of: - visibility and quality of emergency stocks, and, in particular, discrimination between the obligations of the stock owners; - the co-ordination procedure planned in case of problems with supply and the competencies granted by the Commission; - the relevance of a Commission internal monitoring system for oil, and its duties; - the content of the obligations of stock owners and Community procedures concerning the obligations of the International Energy Agency (IEA). For gas, the following will be discussed: - the specific handling of newcomers and small companies, and the possibility for the Commission to make recommendations to ensure that there is no discrimination; - the reporting duties of the Member States; - the Commission's competencies on monitoring gas supplies in the long-term; - setting up an emergency mechanism in case of major disruptions, and the Commission's powers in such an eventuality.
Follow-up of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development: the Council will proceed to an exchange of views on the future of renewable energy at national and Community level, in the context of the follow-up to the Johannesburg Summit. The Presidency will put three questions: - given the "Johannesburg declaration of intentions" and the future enlargement of the EU, amongst other factors, what are the new global objectives to set in order to develop renewable energy at national and Community level? - what specific actions are necessary to reach the global Community objective in terms of renewable energy sources for 2010? - what are the Community's needs if it wants to set ambitious targets for 2020, and which technologies will be best placed to achieve these targets? This discussion will serve as guidelines for the preparation of a Commission communication, and, possibly, for a legislative proposal on the subject.