EU Energy Saving Plan Delayed, Finland Concerned
Date: 03-Oct-06
Country: BELGIUM
The efficiency plan targets ways for the 25-nation bloc to cut its energy use by 20 percent by 2020 -- a target the Commission says is key to the bloc's energy strategy at a time when demand for gas, oil and electricity is growing worldwide.
The Commission had said it would publish the plan earlier this month, but has now taken it off the agenda. Officials and activists say it has been stalled because Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso wants it to be more ambitious.
Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of this year, said it was concerned about the delay.
"We are very concerned about the information about a possible delay on the enery efficiency action plan," a spokesman for the Finnish EU presidency said.
"Energy efficiency is one of the main priorities for the Finnish presidency. We don't see any reason for delaying the adoption of the action plan until January."
Environmentalists said they wanted a plan published soon but said the current one was not concrete enough.
"The content needs to be seriously improved," said Mariangiola Fabbri, energy policy officer at environmental group WWF. She said the group was pushing for an improved plan to be published in a few weeks so that the energy efficiency drive did not lose momentum.
"What we need from the Commission now is a real and clear plan with the measures they intend to take as soon as possible, the resources they intend to put into it, and the timeline."
A spokesman for Barroso said both the president and Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs wanted the plan to be ambitious, but he could not say when it would come out.
"President Barroso and Commissioner Piebalgs are in full agreement that this needs to be an ambitious document and therefore work on this is still in progress," Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said.