Energy statistics

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy adopted the report by Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, LU) amending, under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure,  the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics.

The main amendments were as follows :

Nuclear power: a new Article 7a on Annual Nuclear Statistics is incorporated into the text. Eurostat shall, in cooperation with Member States and the nuclear energy sector in the EU, define a set of annual nuclear statistics which shall be collected and disseminated from 2009 onwards, that year being the first reported period, without prejudice to confidentiality, where it is necessary, and avoiding any duplication of data collection. The set of annual nuclear statistics may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. A new recital states that, in order for the energy statistics system to assist political decision-making and promote public debate, it must afford guarantees of comparability, transparency, flexibility and ability to evolve. Thus, in the near future, statistics on nuclear energy should be incorporated and relevant data concerning renewable energy (e.g. solar power and wood) should be developed more. Similarly, with regard to energy efficiency, the availability of detailed statistics on habitat and transport would be extremely useful.

Renewable energy and final energy consumption statistics: a new Article 7b states that, with a view to improving the quality of energy statistics, Eurostat, in collaboration with the Member States, shall make sure that these statistics are comparable, transparent, detailed and flexible by: a) reviewing the methodology used to generate renewable energy statistics in order to make available additional, pertinent, detailed statistics on each renewable energy source, annually and in a cost effective manner. Eurostat shall present and disseminate the statistics generated from 2010 onwards; (b) reviewing and determining the methodology used at national and Community level to generate final energy consumption statistics (sources, variables, quality) based on the current state of play, existing studies and feasibility pilot-studies yet to be conducted, with the view of establishing breakdown keys for final energies by sector and main energy uses and gradually integrating the resulting elements into the statistics from 2011 onwards. The set of renewable energy statistics and final energy consumption statistics may be modified in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.

Derogations: an amendment to the Annex states that the derogation which France has for reporting the aggregates related to heat shall lapse as soon as France is able to forward the report and, at all events, not more than 4 years after the date of entry into force of the Regulation. Furthermore, any exchange of biofuel which has not been aggregated with transport fuels (for example in their pure form) should be reported in the questionnaire on renewables.

A new recital states that exemptions or derogations should be granted only upon submission of an impact assessment setting out the present situation and any excessive burdens transparently and in the required degree of detail. The period for which they remain in force should be limited to the shortest time necessary. The fact and substance of exemptions or derogations should be taken into account in assessing compliance on the part of Member States with Community obligations and should be indicated when communicating the relevant statistical data.

Comitology: additional exemptions or derogations may be granted by the Commission in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny (rather than the regulatory procedure) for those parts of the national statistics for which the collection would lead to excessive burden on respondents. In addition, methodological specifications designed to ensure the quality of the data transmitted may be developed and later updated in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny (rather than the regulatory procedure.)

Deadline for transmission of data: the Committee has changed this 31 October of the year following the reported period (rather than 30 November). It states that this deadline strikes a balance between the requests of the Member States and the time which Eurostat requires in order to process the data with a view to disseminating them before the Spring Council.

A new clause states that Eurostat shall disseminate yearly energy statistics by 31 January of the second year following the reported period.

Annexes: lastly, the Committee made some amendments to the end use table in Annex B.