Brussels, 08/12/2008 (Agence Europe) -Meeting in Brussels on Monday 8 December, the Energy Council lent its support to the package on energy security and solidarity, which was presented by the European Commission in mid-November and contains five planks: requirements in terms of infrastructure and diversification of supply sources; external energy relations; stocks of oil and gas and reaction mechanisms in the event of crises; energy efficiency; and the optimal exploitation of the energy resources indigenous to the EU (EUROPE 9792).
Speaking before the press, the French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, the president-in-exercise of the Energy Council, confirmed the unanimous support of the Council to the action plan of the Commission under its second strategic analysis of energy policy. "The energy security of the EU is based on three requirements: reducing the energy needs of the EU, in other words increased energy efficiency; increasing local energy production, in other words the development of renewable energies; the funding of energy infrastructure, both public and public-private", explained Mr Borloo, summing up the content of the ministers' discussions on this dossier. The French minister also welcomed the commitment of the European Investment Bank, as announced by its president Philippe Maystadt, who took part in the debate on energy security, to support the funding of improving energy efficiency in the cities and the States, and of improvements to the energy infrastructure of the EU, particularly that dedicated to the use of renewables. The "energy security and solidarity" package will return to the table of the Energy Council under the Czech Presidency in the first half of 2009. (E.H./trans.fl)