CELEX: 51990PC0365
Language: en
Date: 1990-11-13
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION CONCERNING THE PROMOTION OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE COMMUNITY

30. 11.90                              Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 301/11
                                                              II
                                                      (Preparatory Acts)
                                                 COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the promotion of energy efficiency in the
                                                          Community
                                                     COM(90) 365 final
                                    (Submitted by the Commission on 16 November 1990)
                                                        (90/C 301/08)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          Whereas Article 130r of the Treaty    requires a prudent
                                                                  and rational utilization of natural   resources and the
                                                                  rational use of energy is one of the  principal means by
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             which this objective can be respected and environmental
                                                                  pollution reduced;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235
thereof,
                                                                  Whereas the Commission in its communitcation to the
                                                                  Council of 3 May 1988 on the principal results of the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                review of Member States' energy policies (3) noted that
                                                                  the Community would fail to achieve the energy ef-
                                                                  ficiency objective of a further 20 % saving if vigorous
                                                                  measures were not adopted;
Having regard      to  the   opinion    of   the   European
Parliament,
                                                                  Whereas the promotion of energy efficiency in all
                                                                  regions of the European Community will help to
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  reinforce the economic and social development of the
Social Committee,                                                 Community as a whole, an objective which, according to
                                                                  Article 130r of the Treaty, should be taken into account
                                                                  when implementing common policies and the internal
                                                                  market;
Whereas in its resolution of 15 January 1985 on the
improvement of energy saving programmes in the
Member States ( l ), the Council invited the latter to            Whereas the Commission in its communication to the
pursue and, where necessary, increase their efforts to            Council of 8 February 1990 on energy and the en-
promote the more rational use of energy by the further            vironment (4) stressed that energy efficiency had to be
development of integrated energy saving policies;                 increased to reduce the negative impact of energy on the
                                                                  environment;
Whereas in its resolution of 15 September 1986 (2) the
Council considered that the energy policy of the                  Whereas improved energy efficiency will have a positive
Community and the Member States must endeavour to                 impact on both the security of energy supplies and the
achieve the objective of more secure conditions of supply         environment, and as these are by nature of global signifi-
through a vigorous policy for energy savings and the              cance, a high level of international cooperation is
rational use of energy; whereas in that resolution the            desirable to produce the most positive results;
Council adopted for the Community the objective of
achieving a more rational use of energy through
improved energy efficiency and decided that the ef-               Whereas the Council in its Decision 89/364/EEC estab-
ficiency of final demand should be improved by at least           lished a Community action programme for improving the
20 % by 1995;                                                     efficiency of electricity use ( s );
                                                                  (') COM(88) 174 final, 3. 5. 1988.
(') OJ No C 20, 22. 1. 1985, p. 29.                               O COM(89) 369 final, 8. 2. 1990.
(2) OJ No C 241, 25. 9. 1986, p. 1.                               (') OJ No L 157, 9. 6. 1989, p. 32.
 ---pagebreak---  No C 301/12                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                30. 11. 90
 Whereas the Treaty makes no provision for powers other              2.     The level of Community support for the action
 than those of Article 235 for the adoption of this                  referred to in points (b) and (c) of Article 2 shall be
 Decision,                                                           between 30 and 50 % of its total cost. The balance may
                                                                     be made up from either government or private funding
                                                                     or by a combination of both. In exceptional and justi-
                                                                     fiable cases, Community funding may exceed the 50 %
 HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:                                          limit.
                             Article 1                                                        Article 4
 The Community shall, under the conditions laid down in              1.     The Commission shall establish guidelines annually
 this Decision, support a series of energy efficiency                for the support measures referred to in point (b) of
 initiatives within the context of the programme entitled            Article 2.
 SAVE (Specific Actions for Vigorous Energy Efficiency).
                                                                     2.     The proposed initiatives referred to in point (b) of
                                                                     Article 2 shall be presented annually by the Member
 The cost to the Community of giving effect to the                   States to the Commission, which shall decide on the level
 actions established by this Decision shall be determined            and conditions of Community funding according to the
 annually by the budgetary authority.                                procedure referred to in Article 6.
                            Article 2                                                         Article 5
 Three categories of action on energy efficiency shall be            1.     The Commission shall be responsible         for  the
 financed under the SAVE programme, namely:                          implementation of the programme.
                                                                     2.     The Commission shall be assisted by an advisory
 (a) technical evaluations for gathering the data needed
                                                                     committee, hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee',
       for defining technical standards or specifications;
                                                                     composed of the representatives of the Member States
                                                                     and chaired by the representative of the Commission.
 (b) measures to support the Member States' initiatives
      for extending or creating infrastructures concerned                                     Article 6
      with energy saving. These initiatives include:
                                                                    As regards the measures referred to in point (b) of
                                                                    Article 2, the representative of the Commission shall
      — training and information activities with regard to          submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be
           energy efficiency at regional level,                     taken. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the
                                                                    draft within a time limit which the chairman may lay
                                                                    down according to the urgency of the matter, if
      — sectoral pilot measures,                                    necessary by taking a vote.
      — measures to implement the programme                 for     The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in
           improving the efficiency of electricity         use      addition, each Member State shall have the right to ask
           adopted by Decision 89/364/EEC;                          to have its position recorded in the minutes.
                                                                    The Commission shall take the utmost account of the
(c) the creation of an information network aimed at
                                                                    opinion delivered by the Committee. It shall inform the
      promoting better coordination between national,
                                                                    Committee of the manner in which its opinion has been
      Community and international activities through the
                                                                    taken into account.
      establishment of appropriate means for exchanging
      information and at evaluating the impact of the
     various measures provided for in this Article.
                                                                                              Article 7
                                                                    The Member States shall nominate national or regional
                            Article 3                               bodies which shall be responsible for implementing the
                                                                    initiatives referred to in point (b) of Article 2. The
1.      All costs incurred by the action referred to in point       Commission shall sign contracts with the nominated
(a) of Article 2 shall be borne by the Community.                   bodies relating to the support measures.
 ---pagebreak--- 30. 11.90                            Official Journal of the European Communities                       No C 301/13
                         Article 8                                                     Article 9
Three years after the entry into force of this programme       This Decision shall apply from 1 January 1991 to 31
and also at its expiry, the Commission shall present to        December 1995.
the European Parliament and the Council, with a view to
evaluating the results obtained, a report on the                                      Article 10
application of the present Decision and on the coherence
of national and Community action.                              This Decision is addressed to the Member States.