Brussels, 10/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Vienna on Tuesday, the Greens presented their alternative approach (entitled “Vienna Declaration - a sustainable energy policy for Europe” - available at http://www.stopclimatechange.net ) to the Green Paper adopted on 8 March by the Commission (EUROPE 9147). Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes, leader of the parliamentary group on energy issues, urged the Union to include the gradual phasing-out of oil in its energy strategy. Wanting to develop a safe and sustainable energy strategy without making the phasing-out of oil in transport a priority shows a complete misunderstanding of the issue, Mr Turmes said during a press conference. Although the Greens welcome the Commission's attempt to present a holistic vision of Europe's future energy policy, they denounce the “lack of ambition” in the Green Paper which “almost completely forgets transport policy”, a sector that depends, at 96%, on petroleum. “The Union's dependence on fossil fuel in the transport sector is completely under-estimated when the levels of production and price of such fuels are excessively vulnerable”, Mr Turmes told the press in Vienna. “Rather than passing over it in silence, transport policy deserves a full chapter of its own”, “a steering plan”, in the European common energy strategy, the Luxemborug MEP added. As far as the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energies is concerned, the Green Paper “marks points” by placing these two aspects at the “heart of the European response”, the Greens stress, regretting however that no target for 2020 has been set. The Greens also deplore the fact that the Commission has failed to “react to the rebirth of economic patriotism in the energy sector” recently demonstrated by merger and acquisition proposals and manoeuvring between the major energy players (GDF-Suez and E.ON-Endesa). “It is high time the Commission reacted with greater political courage to this constant market concentration in the hands of certain oligopolies”, the Greens stress. It is impossible to build a European energy market leaving competition control in the hands of national authorities, Mr Turmes had said in the Herald Tribune of 7 March. Finally, the Greens regret that the Green Paper puts renewable energies and nuclear energy, to which they are firmly opposed, on the same footing.
Considering that the Commission has “missed a unique opportunity to develop a truly integrated and effective Union energy policy”, the Greens advocate defence of a European energy culture based on consensus when it comes to the need to exclude the nuclear option but to privilege energy efficiency and renewables. In a press release, Mr Turmes says that a “new partnership” is needed around this consensus, broader than that between governments - for example, like that between large towns for the development of public transport using access to European Investment Bank funding, or between regions to develop renewable energies, Mr Turmes says in a press release.
Speaking on behalf of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources (EUFORES), its president, German Social Democrat Mechtild Rothe, welcomes the Commission's intention to set up a future European energy strategy. The Green Paper, however, does not give a sufficiently powerful sign in favour of renewables and energy efficiency, she says in a press release. The European Renewable Energies Council (EREC) expresses the same views, regretting this “missed opportunity”. The environmental association, WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), stresses that the Commission's energy strategy focuses on issues relating to energy supply security and does not have a long term vision in favour of an effective and sustainable use of resources. WWF considers that this strategy is particularly feeble for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources for which it does not foresee any targets, or legislative strengthening. The association, Greenpeace, regrets that the Green Paper suggests unconditional support for the capture and storage of carbon which is potentially non sustainable. Greenpeace deplores moreover that the preferential treatment granted to polluting and dangerous energy sources such as nuclear energy and fossil fuels was not questioned. Finally, placing emphasis on the need to promote wind and solar energy, Friends of the Earth considers that the Commission has missed an opportunity to revolutionise the way energy is produced and consumed.