Brussels, 05/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Monday, the General Affairs Council endorsed the draft conclusions of the European Council of 8 and 9 March. It was mainly on this third chapter devoted to energy and climate change that most remarks and requests for amendments were made. Community sources state that no major changes have been made to the draft text but the German EU Council Presidency should nonetheless put new draft conclusions on the table Friday morning bringing together the whole of the work already approved by Coreper and the Energy Council plus the wishes and preferences expressed by foreign ministers. The only certainty at this stage is that it is up to the heads of state and government to have the last say on whether, or not, the Union's commitment on renewable energies should be binding.
The other certainty is the consensus between the EU27 on the need for unilateral commitment on the part of the Union to reduce its CO2 targets by 20% by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels) and for a 30% target for emissions reduction for all developed countries - and developing countries able to contribute to this - in the context of a post-Kyoto international agreement in order to ensure that temperature rises at the surface of the planet do not exceed 2°C at the end of this century. The European Council should also stress the need for the developed countries to collectively reduce their emissions by 60-80% by 2050, taking 1990 as the reference year.
Recalling that production and use of energy are the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the European Council should therefore agree on the need for an integrated approach on climate and energy policy in order to reach the targets mentioned above. On the “climate” chapter, the EU27 are expected to stress the importance of a “differentiated approach” on member state contributions and relevant reference years. Introduced by the Environment Council on 20 February this year, an explicit reference to an indispensable later agreement on the key to burden-sharing and the criteria that will guide the process of emissions reduction should also be kept in the European Council conclusions.
Only the annex on the “energy” chapter joined to the document that is to be adopted by the heads of state and government and which expressly takes up the conclusions of the Energy Council of 15 February is expected to be the subject of bitter discussion between the EU's 27 members. One point in particular, that we have already mentioned, namely the adoption of a binding, or not binding, objective for a 20% share of renewable energies in the Union's energy mix, will be the main subject of debate. The question of effective separation of production activities (unbundling) is postponed till later.
During Monday's discussions, some of the delegations, headed by Denmark, Spain and Sweden, recalled the importance of having a firm commitment for the development of renewables and confirmed that their leaders will be coming down in favour of a binding objective. Other delegations, including most of the new member states, Luxembourg and Finland, whose industries have very intensive energy use, reaffirmed their reservation about adopting a compulsory target for renewables as a whole, it being nonetheless an acquired fact that the European Council should validate the consensus concerning an objective of at least 10% of biofuels in the total consumption of petrol and diesel fuel for transport within the Union for all member states. At the fore of the reticent delegations, France hopes that “the nuclear option will be recognised as a source of energy that emits little CO2, therefore making a contribution to protection of the environment, explained Catherine Colonna, French Minister for European Affairs. Paris is thus in favour of adopting a general objective for low carbon content energies, as this all-embracing objective would contain sub-divisions including renewable energies, she said. This, she said, is because renewable energies are important but not sufficient to reach emission reduction targets. Paris takes the view that a target for renewables should thus be a secondary objective. In answer to questions on the possibility of France envisaging a targeted objective for the development of low carbon content energies, Ms Colonna said that, “if the renewable energy sub-division makes 20%, then the whole should do more”. The French minister nonetheless gave her assurance that Paris was not calling for an “explicit mention” for the nuclear option in the European Council conclusions. The United Kingdom, which made a remarkable turnaround last week in favour of a binding objective for renewables, remained cautious.
“Sometimes, we manage to attain unexpected compromises and I am convinced that we shall manage it”, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told the press when asked whether it were possible that the German Presidency might introduce a target in the draft conclusions for low carbon content energies. This points to there being an animated discussion next week, given the warning made by the Austrian minister, Ursula Plassnik. “We do not believe that it is useful to have a debate on the nuclear option at the European Council. Each member state is free to choose its energy mix”, she told journalists. (eh)