Check against Delivery!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is a good day for European consumers, for the protection of the climate and of the environment as well as for the competitiveness of European industry. The European Union has made a giant stride in advance on the long road towards a competitive, dependable and environmentally friendly energy policy resulting in more favourable prices for all Europeans.
I am pleased to inform you in my capacity as Council President that it is the firm determination of all 27 Member States to work towards attaining these goals. Our exchange of opinions has been very fruitful focusing on questions relating to the single European market and to sustainability.
After many discussions, also at bilateral level, we have made a breakthrough and agreed on the draft text of an Action Plan for Energy Efficiency. We have thereby provided a basis for the European Council on which it can adopt an Action Plan of this kind at its meeting on 08/09 March 2007. At the centre of our deliberations have been Europe’s consumers. Energy supply is to become cheaper, more secure and more friendly to the environment. Energy supply in the EU is to become more independent. Electricity generation in Europe must be prevented from further warming up the climate. Energy supply and an efficient energy use must make larger contributions to climate protection, though such contributions must be economically reasonable.
Single European Market for electricity / gas
Our aim is to ensure that every European consumer can buy energy at favourable prices anywhere in Europe. But there is still a lot to be done before this will have been realised: It is our joint task to reduce barriers to cross-border trade. The Member States concerned must make sure before 2010 that their electricity and gas grids can be connected to those of their neighbour states so that the 10 %-value agreed upon at Barcelona will be attained. This means that the interconnector capacities must amount to at least 10 % of the domestic installed capacity. Moreover, we wish to invite the EU Commission to prepare details for establishing an independent mechanism ensuring that national regulatory authorities can cooperate and take decisions in important cross-border cases. We need fair competition with a „level playing field“ for all Member States. This will include effectively separating network operations from electricity generation. It must be ensured that access to networks is absolutely non-discriminatory. For an investor would only be prepared to construct a power station if he can rest assured that there will be a grid by which to sell the electricity produced. We now wish to expressly request the Commission to study all options, to describe their effects and, subsequently, to make concrete proposals. Nothing has been excluded, nobody has blocked the road towards reasonable progress. All states have recognised the existence of a need for action to achieve an effective opening of networks.
The Council has clearly formulated the following objectives:
Transmission networks are to be operated independently.
To this end, we need adequate regulations.
Access to networks must be unrestricted and on the basis of a level playing field for all.
Investments are to make networks secure and highly efficient.
This will make it easier to connect new power stations, especially for new market participants.
Security of supply / solidarity
We know by experience that solidarity in connection with security of supply consists of two components. On the one hand, problems must be avoided from the very outset. This can best be achieved through good relations with producers and with transit countries as well as through diversification of sources of supply and transit routes.
In our capacity as energy ministers, we also wish to advocate on the other hand, that emergency measures within the framework of existing gas stores, for instance, and other EU measures be examined on a commercial basis and that existing measures in the field of oil be further improved.
External energy relations
It is a matter of great importance for Europe to speak to its partners, especially to its most important supplier, transit and consumer countries, with a single voice even more strongly than so far. On this, we have all been firmly agreed at the Energy Council. The imminent negotiations on a successor agreement to the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between the EU and Russia will be a good opportunity for us to hold constructive and frank talks on secure and stable energy relations.
Renewable sources of energy
Europeneeds incentives and dependable framework conditions in the field of renewable sources of energy. We would like to see a vigorous boost of renewable energetic resources in the whole of Europe. For, we wish to prevent energy production in Europe from continuing to damage the climate. This the EU can and must make sure. As energy ministers, we expressly support the overall objective of a 20 % share for renewable energies till 2020, as proposed by the Commission’s timetable for renewable energies. Moreover, we have reached agreement on a proposal making it mandatory for gasoline and diesel fuel to include a 10 % biofuels share from 2020. This represents a breakthrough in terms of climate protection about which I am particularly pleased – especially in view of the concerns initially expressed by some.
Energy efficiency
It is our aim to visibly increase energy efficiency. All Member States together have undertaken to make use of the energy conservation potential which the Commission has estimated to amount to up to 20 % till 2020. As Energy Ministers, we demand that the priority measures as described by the Action Plan for Energy Efficiency be speedily implemented.
Energy technologies
Research and development are important strategic instruments of energy policy. The Commission has been requested to submit as early as at the 2008 spring Summit a concrete Strategic Plan for Energy Technology. We deem it especially important to develop sustainable power station technologies. For this reason, the Energy Ministers expressly welcome the possibility of CO2 capture and storage at the level of coal-fired power stations till 2020 and the creation of 12 demonstration projects till 2015.
Conclusions
You see that we have identified joint answers to all urgent questions in the field of European energy policy. And this precisely is the task and objective of the European Union. For global problems can, as a general rule, not be solved nationally, but only through joint efforts. In my capacity as President of the Council, I shall – together with my colleagues from the other 26 Member States and with representatives of the EU Commission – continue on the road on which we have embarked in order to score successes in the interest of European consumers as soon as possible. The way towards a speedy realisation of a single European market for energy has now been paved.
Since the President of the Council of Ministers has, so to speak, to play the role of locomotive-driver at the same time, I look forward to the discussions we will have in the next few months.
