Brussels, 19/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Last week, in the context of the 3rd Sustainable Energy Week, Anders Wijkman (EPP-ED, Sweden) received the Special Award for Sustainable Energy for his work to promote energy efficiency and renewable energies during his two terms of office as MEP. As a member of the European Parliament, Mr Wijkman has been responsible for drafting sustainability criteria for biofuels and initiating a proposal for developing a “Supergrid” for extending the capacity of transmission of electricity over large distances, enabling clean electricity from solar power in Northern Africa to be imported into the EU at a low cost. In 2001, he also initiated the cross-party network (including members of all political groups of the EP and of national parliaments), Energy Intelligent Europe, launching many ideas for an extended EU programme for energy efficiency. Several of these proposals have become part of EU legislation, such as the buildings directive, the eco-design directive and the directive for CO2 and cars. Mr Wijkman, who advocates stricter requirements on energy efficiency in buildings as well as a moratorium on coal-fired power plants not fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS), is also very involved in the promotion of low carbon content energy solutions in developing countries. (E.H./transl.jl)