EU energy chief eyes continued coal subsidies
Date: 27-Jun-01
Country: EU
EU Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said subsidies should be allowed for coal, alongside those for renewable energies, as a way of securing energy supplies for the bloc, which is heavily dependent on imported fuel.
"Aid to coal must be phased out by 2010, by which time all countries will have to have made significant reductions in their gas emissions required by the Kyoto protocol (on climate change)," de Palacio said in a statement.
"But it is important thereafter to maintain a strategic reserve, meaning some of the infrastructure, qualified personnel and technological experience," she added.
De Palacio has said in the past she favoured keeping a low level of coal producing capacity in the EU and that this would have to be subsidised, but this was the clearest statement to date that she would formally propose EU rules allowing coal subsidies well into the future.
"In the coming weeks I will propose measures that aim to create a platform of subsidised primary energies consisting of coal and renewable energy sources - it's a matter of improving the security of energy supply in Europe," she said.
De Palacio has angered environmentalists by her comments that coal - a major source of greenhouse gas - and nuclear power were good indigenous sources of energy for Europe and should not be shunned for ideological reasons.