ENERGY POLICY FOR EUROPE (5232/07, 5237/07,
5240/07, 5282/07, 5354/07, 5373/07, 5374/07, 5391/07)
Letter from the Chairman to Lord Truscott,
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy, Department
of Trade and Industry
Sub-Committee B considered these documents,
together with your Explanatory Memoranda, at is meeting on 26
February 2007.
At the outset, we share your view that the Strategic
Energy Review is broadly "positive for the UK" and are
pleased to note that the Review reflects "informal UK discussions
with the Commission". We believe that the regular review
of the EU's energy policy will play a valuable role in ensuring
that the policy continues to respond to the inevitable emerging
and changing challenges which the EU will face in the years to
come.
As you will be aware from our report of last
year, The Commission's Green Paper, "A European Strategy
for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy",[24]
we are firmly of the view that action to unbundle distribution
and supply is central to realising the internal market in energy.
Such action would take the EU a significant way forward to achieving
its three core energy objectives. We also endorsed the proposals
for an EU-Strategic Energy Technology Plan and concluded that
"developing an energy policy which is sufficiently flexible
to allow the inclusion of key, low carbon technologies ... is
critical to delivering sustainability".
However we do share some of your misgivings
over the Commission's recommendations contained in the related
documents. We agree that, with the very different needs of 27
Member States, any targets must be flexible enough to allow the
Member States to determine their own energy mix in the interests
of both subsidiarity and efficiency. The Commission's proposed
mandatory targets on renewable energy sources might pose a threat
to this, and we will monitor closely the legislative proposals
which you expect at some point in 2007.
Similarly, we support our opposition to any
moves by the Commission to advance proposals on nuclear security,
which we believe should remain a matter for Member States. We
were also disappointed that the review did little to take forward
the idea of a more coherent external energy policy for Europe,
which we strongly support.
We would welcome an update from you following
the discussions of the review in the Spring European Council,
particularly on whether there now appears to be consensus between
Member States on the way forward. We are content to lift scrutiny
on these documents.
28 February 2007
24 41st Report of Session 2005-06, HL Paper 224. Back
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