Strasbourg, 25/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 September, the Parliament adopted an own-initiative report by Britta Thomsen (PES, Denmark) on a roadmap for renewable energy in Europe, a draft of which is due to be presented by the Commission by the end of 2007. The Parliament set out its demands before the Commission suggests a binding legislative framework for there to be 20% of renewable energy in the EU energy mix by 2020, as validated by the European Council in March. Convinced that a specific legal framework is needed to achieve the objectives relating to increased use of renewable energies, the EP supports and strengthens the Commission's proposal to include the share of renewables (in total EU energy consumption) within National Action Plans (NAPs) of member states. Also, it supports an approach that can be modulated according to the sectors with specific objectives in the fields of electricity (at least 32% by 2020), heating and cooling, and transport, and calls for the introduction of strong measures to promote the use of renewables in the heating and cooling sector. Although it stresses how important it is for all member states to take part in achieving the 20% objective, the EP nonetheless considers that each of them should be able to decide freely, and according to their own specificities, what renewable energy sources should be taken into account in the national plan. It also hopes that the NAPs will be divided into stages and that the Commission will define medium-term objectives regularly revised so that it is possible to act before 2020 if a member state does not meet its obligations. Finally, the EP naturally devotes a significant place to the use and promotion of biofuels while stressing that a fair balance must be struck between agricultural fuel production and food production. In this context, it supports the binding goal of 10% biofuels in the consumption of transport fuels for each member state, as long as these fuels are produced in a sustainable way. (eh)