Piebalgs: More money for EU energy strategy

Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs has said he would like "more money" for the EU's new strategic energy plan. 

He was defending the new SET plan on Thursday from suggestions that it’s just another unnecessary layer of administration without any monetary value.

“The added value of the plan is to say we need to concentrate research in areas where we can make breakthroughs,” the energy commissioner said.

Energy research is already funded under the seventh framework programme, as well as the competitiveness and innovation programme. There will be no new funding for energy research under the commission's proposals for SET, which pushes for the better use of existing resources instead.

“I would like to have more money for it,” Piebalgs said.

He explained that Europe’s energy research budget has declined substantially since the 1980s. If governments were investing today at the same rate as in 1980, the EU would be spending around €8bn instead of the €2.5bn it spent last year.

The proposals under the SET plan include the creation of ‘European industrial initiatives’ to bring together resources in particular sectors; the setting up of a European energy research alliance to coordinate research across European universities; planning the reorganisation of energy infrastructure networks; and a regularly updated information system on energy technologies.

However, the plan has come under fire from environmental NGOs, who say that it fails to provide a true ‘strategic’ vision on how to power Europe with energy that is both environmentally safe and secure in supply.

Greenpeace’s energy expert, Frauke Thies, said: “Under the umbrella of ‘low-carbon’ technologies, the plan fails to distinguish between the real solutions to the climate crisis, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and expensive technologies that either bear an unacceptable environmental cost, like nuclear energy, or that are mere distractions, like carbon capture and storage.”

Green MEP Claude Turmes echoed the criticisms, saying the plan neglects to prioritise clean energy technologies.

“The commission has presented an all and nothing approach. By trying to please a variety of energy lobbies, the plan will inevitably fall short of providing a real incentive for any.”

In September the parliament reaffirmed its support for nuclear as part of the energy mix by adopting a report by EPP deputy Herbert Reul on conventional energy sources and new technology.

The report found that nuclear energy is “indispensable if basic energy needs are to be met in Europe in the medium term”.

An own-initiative report by German ALDE deputy Jorgo Chatzimarkakis released on Thursday calls for more research funding to meet binding CO2 targets in the automobile sector.

The parliament’s industry committee suggests that one of the first knowledge and innovation communities of the new European institute of technology should address CO2 reduction through vehicle technology.

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