EN Official Journal of the European Union C 305/1

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘The energy package’

(2007/C 305/01)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— points out that local and regional authorities make a decisive contribution to the success of European initiatives. European law is implemented at local and regional level; it is down to leaders on the ground and to the public to act in such a way as to influence energy consumption tangibly and sustainably;

— believes that energy policy and climate protection policy are closely interrelated and must be coordinated, given that 80 % of CO2 emissions in Europe come from the production of energy. It is therefore important that measures proposed for climate policy are taken on board in the field of energy and vice versa. At the same time, energy policy focused on the environment and on efficiency also forms part of climate policy;

— supports the Commission's efforts to remove forthwith administrative obstacles, unfair network access conditions (e.g. discrimination against suppliers of renewable energy) and complicated procedures;

— calls on the Commission to take appropriate measures to prevent market concentration and to encourage the diversity of market participants;

— supports the aim of achieving an energy saving of 20 % in the EU by 2020 through increased energy efficiency. The Committee would like this target to be binding;

— stresses that energy efficiency should be the centrepiece of European energy policy and be given the highest priority in the debate;

— doubts that CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technologies can be considered as a long-term solution, as they significantly reduce the efficiency of the plant in question and, moreover, are not especially economically efficient from today's perspective. From a global viewpoint, however, a CCS strategy could be an interim solution.

Reference documents

Communication from the Commission to the European Council and the European Parliament: An Energy Policy for Europe

COM(2007) 1 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Prospects for the internal gas and electricity market

COM(2006) 841 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Sustainable power generation from fossil fuels: aiming for near-zero emissions from coal after 2020

COM(2006) 843 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Biofuels Progress Report — Report on the progress made in the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels in the Member States of the European Union

COM(2006) 845 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Priority Interconnection Plan

COM(2006) 846 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Towards a European Strategic Energy Technology Plan

COM(2006) 847 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Renewable Energy Road Map — Renewable energies in the 21st century: building a more sustainable future

COM(2006) 848 final

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Green Paper follow-up action — Report on progress in renewable electricity

COM(2006) 849 final

Rapporteur : Mr Bernd VÖGERLE, Mayor of Gerasdorf bei Wien (AT/PES)

Policy recommendations

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Introduction

1. stresses the importance of energy in underpinning modern life. Interruptions to and bottlenecks in supply therefore have wide-ranging effects and cause major economic damage. The common European energy policy, and its goals of security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness, is therefore very important to local and regional authorities. Meeting these goals requires a balanced energy mix;

2. points out that local and regional authorities make a decisive contribution to the success of European initiatives. European law is implemented at local and regional level; it is down to leaders on the ground and to the public to act in such a way as to influence energy consumption tangibly and sustainably;

3. therefore calls on the responsible European institutions, in particular the Commission, to take proper account of the significant role of local and regional authorities in European energy policy when implementing the energy package in practice;

4. believes that energy policy and climate protection policy are closely interrelated and must be coordinated, given that 80 % of CO2 emissions in Europe come from the production of energy. It is therefore important that measures proposed for climate policy are taken on board in the field of energy and vice versa. At the same time, energy policy focused on the environment and on efficiency also forms part of climate policy;

5. points out that consumers making informed choices play a key role in implementing European goals. Consumers should therefore be at the heart of the debate. Socially disadvantaged sections of the population are hit especially hard by any increase in energy prices. Publicly-funded assistance should therefore be invested, with sustainability and a coherent climate policy in mind, in energy efficiency and awareness-raising measures rather than in purely financial support;

Internal market

6. points out that the expectation that liberalised electricity and gas markets would lead to lower prices for consumers and the dissolution of energy supply monopolies has not been fulfilled in all Member States. Furthermore, believes that under-investment in power stations and networks, in particular an under-investment in renewable and local supplies and networks, is jeopardising security of supply. If current trends continue, supply bottlenecks are expected in the future;

7. therefore calls on the Commission to create incentives for producers and network operators to invest in the construction of power plants and upgrading network infrastructure (as was the case before liberalisation). A possible way into this direction could be the establishment of local and regional energy production plans, drawing on data available at local and regional level;

8. supports the Commission's efforts to remove forthwith administrative obstacles, unfair network access conditions (e.g. discrimination against suppliers of renewable energy) and complicated procedures;

9. favours unbundling, where a separation under company law, supported by a strong regulator is seen as sufficient;

10. calls on the Commission to take appropriate measures to prevent market concentration and to encourage the diversity of market participants (including municipal services);

11. considers that the upgrading of transnational networks strengthens the hand of local and regional authorities, for example when purchasing energy;

12. rejects the idea of setting up new administrative structures such as a European ‘energy regulator’, as national regulators are capable of achieving the objectives proposed by the Commission and confirmed by the European Council;

13. calls on the Commission to structure the emissions trading mechanism in such a way that power stations would receive only as many certificates under the allocation plan as correspond to the production of the planned amount of power and heat in a gas turbine CHP power station. This would be a clear signal in favour of the objective of boosting the energy-efficiency of electricity generation;

Energy efficiency

14. supports the aim of achieving an energy saving of 20 % in the EU by 2020 through increased energy efficiency. The Committee would like this target to be binding;

15. stresses that energy efficiency should be the centrepiece of European energy policy and be given the highest priority in the debate;

16. calls on the relevant European institutions, and above all the Commission, to ensure that an appropriate framework is provided in areas such as the following: — fuel-efficient vehicles; — high standards (in particular a stand-by setting that can be switched off) and better labelling for (household) appliances; — the lowest possible total energy consumption or the passive house standard in new buildings; — the internalisation of external costs by means of consistent cost calculations across the whole life cycle/supply chain of products and services for public procurement; — EIB loans for local and regional authorities' energy efficiency programmes; — aid for energy efficiency under the block exemption regulation.

17. points out that many measures are implemented at regional and local level and contribute to the success of the European initiative: — regional development taking into account energy aspects; — incentive programmes for energy efficiency measures (e.g. building renovation, replacement of obsolete lighting, replacement of household appliances); — incentive programmes for renewable energy sources; — establishing building standards that go above and beyond the buildings directive; — spatial planning; — traffic management (local public passenger transport, cycle paths); — parking management, in order to reduce car journeys in towns and encourage carpooling and more environmentally-friendly cars; — energy advice for businesses; — publicity, campaigns, awareness raising (e.g. specific information on how to save energy at home, in vehicle usage, etc.); — leading by example (energy saving by public bodies) and training of in-house staff; — public procurement to improve the energy efficiency of goods and services.

18. calls for more EU resources, for example under the Intelligent Energy for Europe (IEE) programme, to be made available for the exchange of best practice at regional and local level;

19. requests the Commission to set the target for energy efficiency on an aggregate level (i.e. energy intensity of the whole economy). This would give Member States and regions the flexibility to achieve the target using a wider range of measures, including measures aimed at the energy consumption of apparatuses and the industrial structure of the (regional) economy;

Renewable energy sources

20. supports the binding target of 20 % of total energy consumption coming from renewable sources by 2020;

21. highlights the socio-economic importance of local energy sources and their importance to security of supply and efficiency of transmission and suggests that promotion of renewable energy sources should be appropriate to the respective geographical, climatic and economic conditions; emphasises in this respect the key role local and regional authorities can play in promoting and procuring local renewable energy sources;

22. advocates renewable energy targets including the heating and cooling sector. Combined production of electricity and heat/cooling has a key role to play here;

23. observes that sustainability must be at the forefront of every measure. Countries that invested in biomass at an early stage are already meeting a significant proportion of their energy needs through this source. However, the problem often arises that the demand can no longer be met exclusively by locally available energy (usually wood) and that biofuels need to be transported long distances to their destination. When this is the case, the alternative clearly becomes less sustainable. Thus there is a need to consider other modes of transport which are less energy-consuming;

24. takes the view that Member States which have only limited possibilities to produce energy from renewable sources should be given the option of achieving their target on renewable energy through trade, either within a EU-wide green-energy certificate system, or through bilateral contracts with other States which have a more abundant supply of renewable energy. The aim here is to reduce the overall costs of meeting the targets on renewable energy;

25. requests the Commission and the Member States to make it compulsory to hear the views of local and regional authorities when drawing up national action plans to promote renewable energy sources;

Biofuels

26. supports the binding target of 10 % of total EU fuel consumption coming from biofuels by 2020, provided that production is sustainable;

27. stresses how important the diversity of energy sources and types of biomass will be;

28. considers it especially important that climate policy should be seen in an international perspective, and that different biofuels should be promoted on the basis of their environmental and climate performance, using a lifecycle approach that takes account of production methods, transport, etc. In addition to promoting efficient European production, imports from non-EU countries could be considered of secondary importance. Environment-friendly and energy efficient production of biofuels should be promoted, regardless of the type of biofuel and that of the plants being processed;

29. suggests that promoting the production of biofuels in third countries runs counter to the aim of reducing dependency on energy imports and creates new kinds of dependency, and therefore stresses that imports from non-EU countries must be of secondary importance. When importing energy, sustainability and energy efficiency must be taken into account from a life-cycle perspective for different biofuels;

30. points out the importance of producing biofuels in a sustainable manner in order to avoid a loss of biodiversity. It must be avoided that large energy crop ‘monocultures’ (concentrated growth of a single crop over wide areas) excessively disrupt the local ecosystem;

31. stresses that a sustainability code must be observed when importing raw materials for biofuels. By imposing relevant requirements on its trading partners, the EU could help support ecologically and socially just business practices that avoid loss of important habitat. The process of international negotiations and the development of an appropriate regulatory framework should commence immediately;

The use of coal

32. doubts that CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technologies can be considered as a long-term solution, as they significantly reduce the efficiency of the plant in question and, moreover, are not especially economically efficient from today's perspective. From a global viewpoint, however, a CCS strategy could be an interim solution;

33. Research into and the development of CCS technology should be stepped up;

34. calls for CCS technology, as soon as it is commercially available, to be taken into account when approving new coal-fired power stations;

Energy technology

35. notes that current efforts in the energy technology sector are not sufficient. Furthermore, the system is very sluggish, which means that it often takes decades to implement new technologies;

36. calls for more resources to be devoted to energy technology under the Research, Technology and Demonstration Framework Programme and under Intelligent Energy Europe. The demonstration of new technologies at regional and local level has a particular contribution to make towards raising public awareness, as well as raising the appropriate level of skills in the workforce. It is important that support for R & D should be available to smaller private commercial players as well as to the public sector;

37. emphasises that the development of cutting-edge technology also creates export opportunities. This may lead to the creation of many new jobs;

International cooperation

38. feels that only wide-ranging and comprehensive cross-border cooperation together with energy policy and climate protection agreements to achieve a sustainable environment, increased energy efficiency and economical use of energy will succeed in both the short and long term, and benefit present and future generations living in and outside of the EU;

39. demands that under no circumstances should technical assistance to third countries be provided in such a way that products and production methods that are outdated or banned in the EU are exported to non-member countries, whether for payment or not. It is therefore important to ensure that such criteria apply at all levels (EU, national, regional, local) and to all institutions (including the EIB);

The social dimension

40. calls on the Commission to step up its efforts to ensure that best international energy efficiency practices are used in the EU and that European initiatives, together with EU efforts and best practices are disseminated, including outside the EU;

41. stresses that the ability of local and regional authorities to influence the pricing structure of energy is very limited and only exists in a few areas. Opportunities arise where they are able to use their own energy resources on a large scale, provided that the costs of these are competitive with other energy sources in a liberalised market. In addition to this, attempts can be made, through awareness-raising measures, to increase public acceptance of the higher costs resulting from the use of renewable energy. Ongoing benefit payments (fuel and heating benefits) are to be questioned, as these do not generally encourage consumer to change their behaviour. Instead, the Committee advocates support for energy efficiency measures, which lead both to lower costs and to an improved quality of life. This support should include access to energy use information for consumers (smart meters) and information on area energy use for local and regional authorities to target efficiency measures and support in order to avoid hardship for those on limited incomes (fuel poverty);

42. notes with concern the impact of increased demand for energy-producing raw materials, which is causing disproportionate increases in the price of food. A comprehensive study of the energy market and of the expected demand for raw materials for biofuels is therefore necessary, not least with a view to forecasting the impact on food markets right down to the small regional level.