Electricity, internal market: renewable energy sources

The committee adopted a report by Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, L) calling for fair treatment of traditional and renewable energy sources and for the introduction of an EU-wide CO2-energy tax. The report wanted the Commission to devise a plan to deal with subsidies to traditional energy sources and to ensure the even application of EU state aid disciplines, so that all energies were subject to the same provisions. The committee also argued that, as long as no CO2 energy tax was in place, direct and indirect subsidies to traditional energy sources continued, and fair access to the grid was not guaranteed, support for renewable energy sources should not be viewed as a straightforward subsidy under the rules on state aid but should be given separate, special treatment. While the directive establishing the internal electricity market did give some priority to renewables, the committee believed more should be done and that there was a need for a complementary directive dealing with renewable energies. Any such directive should not only protect systems which encouraged renewable electricity generation in the internal market but should also establish a suitable and stable legal framework for renewable energies to boost the rapid development of these energy sources. The committee urged the Commission to propose a directive establishing priority rules for access to electricity produced from renewable energy sources and a financial framework for shared-cost Community intervention in respect of research into, and the promotion of, such forms of energy. It also called on the Member States to commit themselves to ambitious targets for the consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources. Lastly, the committee called on the Union to establish a European Sustainable Energy Agency, structurally based on the model of the European Environment Agency, to provide a single point in the EU dealing with all aspects of renewables and to make recommendations as to how to achieve the EU's targets for renewable energy and energy saving.