WRITTEN QUESTION E-2227/96 by Sérgio Ribeiro (GUE/NGL) and Honório Novo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (9 August 1996)

Subject: Poseima-energy programme

The energy situation in the Azores and Madeira is characterized by extremely high dependence on imported petroleum products, extra supply costs incurred in transport to the archipelagos and secondary storage and the impossibility of establishing links with continental and trans-European energy networks. Poseima therefore made provision for Community aid from 1991 to 1993 on condition that these autonomous regions invested at least 50% of the annual amounts provided (ECU 5 million for the Azores and ECU 3.3 million for Madeira) in local and renewable energy sources.

Bearing in mind the permanent nature of the reasons which motivated the introduction of this action, can the Commission say whether it is considering extending the energy component of Poseima? If not, how does the Commission envisage that these ultra-peripheral autonomous regions will be able to cope with the extra transport costs, continued dependency on imported petroleum products and the impossibility of links to continental and trans-European networks?

Can the Commission also say what progress was achieved in local and renewable energy production over the period concerned (1991-93)?

Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (23 October 1996)

The energy component of the Poseima programme for the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores was designed to make a start on solving the following problems:

- heavy dependence on imported oil, with limited scope for diversifying into coal or gas;

- extra supply costs due essentially to transport between islands and keeping secondary storage depots;

- technical impossibility of connecting the islands to the continental and trans-European energy networks;

- little use of renewable energy sources such as geothermal hydro and wind energy, and the need to improve efficiency in the use and consumption of energy.

Poseima therefore earmarked Community aid for 1991-93 to compensate for the extra cost of shipping oil products between the continent and depots in the Azores and Madeira. Aid of ECU 3.3 million a year for Madeira and ECU 5 million a year for the Azores was granted on condition that the regions put at least 50% into programmes to foster investment in local and renewable energy. The Commission will submit an evaluation report on the energy component of Poseima as soon as it has received full information on this matter.

Provision has been made for the measures supported by Poseima to help investment in renewable energy and energy saving to be continued as part of the existing financial measures in the new operational programme for the Madeira autonomous region which was approved in the context of the Community support framework for Portugal for the period 1994-99, and by the Community initiative Regis II in the case of the Azores.

The figures available to the Commission on the production of renewable energy in Madeira and the Azores show a rapid rise in the production of electricity from such sources. Between 1991 and 1994, the production of hydro, wind and geothermal energy increased by 28% in Madeira; i.e. from 50 GWh per hour to 64 GWh. In the Azores the figure more than doubled, rising from 23 to 57 GWh.