Заседание test окончателен a6-0426/2006

OPINION of the {REGI}Committee on Regional Development

Draftsman: Oldřich Vlasák

The Committee on Regional Development calls on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:

1. Encourages the Commission in its efforts to establish a common approach to energy policy leading to fully sustainable, competitive internal markets, security of supply, reduced costs for the consumer and universal access, and underlines that this policy must include a sustainable, coherent, strategic and focused sub-national component;

2. Urges the Commission, the Member States, the regions and the other interlocutors involved, both as part of the national strategic reference frameworks and in the operational programmes for the period 2007-2013, and in accordance with the strategic guidelines agreed with Parliament, to make effective use of the possibilities offered to them by the cohesion policy to support this European strategy for sustainable, competitive and secure energy;

3. Urges the Commission to include the proposals under this European strategy in the drawing-up of the fourth cohesion report, paying particular attention to the role of secure access to energy and diversified, sustainable and efficient energy use as a complementary indicator of economic, social and regional cohesion; calls on the Commission, to this end, to boost the presence and activity of both the EIB and the new cohesion financing instruments (JASPERS, JEREMIE and JESSICA) in projects involving energy efficiency and support for renewable energies;

4. Considers it necessary to fully evaluate current measures and practices falling within the scope of energy policy at European level and their implementation by Member States and only after that to propose new rules and institutions, if necessary;

5. Regrets that the proposed energy policy is oriented mainly to the supply side and that energy efficiency issues are not given sufficient importance within the strategy; insists that a common energy policy should give clear priority to sustainable energy efficiency, which even now can achieve real and measurable savings, as well as to renewable and decentralised energy sources, particularly in connection with equipment and technologies used by public utilities and households; maintains that a common energy policy must also establish conditions enabling new technologies utilisable in the short and medium term to be exploited rapidly and to better effect;

6. Asks that the regional dimension should be an integral part of the Union's energy policy in order to favour the more balanced distribution of energy production and consumption across EU territory, so as to ensure a better spread of economic activities and population;

7. Stresses that many outlying and outermost regions have considerable potential in terms of renewable energies, linked to their geographical or climate-related characteristics (sunshine, wind, biomass, wave energy); hopes that more use will be made of this outstanding opportunity, particularly in order to make an active contribution to achieving the Kyoto objectives;

8. Highlights the key role that local and regional authorities play and the potential role that they could play regarding the introduction and implementation of measures concerning the incorporation of renewable energy and energy saving technologies in projects being carried out by them and receiving Community and national funding, such as measures concerning the energy performance of buildings, where they can take full advantage of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive¹; calls on local and regional authorities to use the most energy efficient infrastructures and services in outdoor lighting and public transport systems, for example;

9. Demands that integrated and continuous support be given to local and regional authorities in relation to energy efficiency and sustainability measures under all European funding schemes, in particular the Structural Funds, FP7, Intelligent Energy Europe, and, in general, all regional policy and financial engineering measures encompassed within cohesion policy for the period from 2007 to 2013, as well as in relation to the activities of the EIB;

10. Calls on the Commission, following a structured dialogue, to publish a communication on the role of local and regional authorities in energy policy, with special focus on energy efficiency, non-CO₂ producing renewable and/or decentralised energy sources as well as sustainable transport and the urban dimension of energy policy;

11. Calls on the Commission to give full support to a properly functioning internal market for gas and electricity working for the benefit of all European citizens, not least in order to overcome the domination of former monopoly suppliers; further calls for greater interconnection between national gas and electricity markets, which will be of particular benefit to the border regions of the Union.

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