Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-05-Speech-2-115"
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"en.19991005.7.2-115"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank Parliament once again, and especially Mrs Ahern, for the work it has carried out and the repeated support for the Commission’s policy, specifically with regard to the improvement in the use of energy and the increase in energy efficiency which the SAVE programme is aimed at.
With regard to two questions which have arisen, firstly, I profoundly regret the nuclear accident in South Korea which has happened just days after the accident in Japan and which has affected a number of workers.
Secondly, I would like to mention the Kyoto objective, to which energy efficiency is clearly of key importance. The Commission will briefly present – it is included in the agenda of the next Council of 2 December – the action plan on energy efficiency, and then we will have the opportunity to discuss these questions in more depth.
With regard to a final matter which I had left out, which is the participation of some countries in Central and Eastern Europe, I would like to say that currently there are ten countries which are benefiting from the SAVE programmes in order to bring about an improvement in energy efficiency. When we compare data on energy efficiency we find differences of 1:5 and 1:6 in relation to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Mr President, I will end by congratulating Mrs Ahern once again, thanking all of you for your positive participation in this matter, and Parliament for the support it has lent the Commission in this field and, simply, by saying that we are talking about something very important which is the intelligent use of resources and energy.
On behalf of the Commission, I would also like to thank Mrs Ahern and Mrs McNally for having congratulated the Commission on the development of this type of action, which the officials of the Commission will also be grateful for.
Once approved, this programme will become an important component of the multiannual framework programme for energy, providing a greater degree of transparency and better coordination of our programmes in the energy industry, allowing Parliament to fulfil its monitoring role in the interests of European citizens.
With regard to the report of the Honourable Member and proposed amendments, Mrs Ahern, I would like to say that, in principle, the majority of them are acceptable. In the case of Amendment No 4, as we said earlier in relation to the ALTENER programme, there is a clear need for renewable energy and energy efficiency to go hand in hand. All of this constitutes one of the basic objectives of the multiannual framework agreement on energy, which is aimed specifically at improving complementarity and coordination in this field.
As for Amendments Nos. 12 and 13, which replace Amendments Nos. 11 and 5, which the Honourable Members have referred to, and which refer to the involvement of Committees, I would like to say that they are acceptable in principle but require another more appropriate wording. I can say the same for Amendment No 10, which proposes an increase in the budgetary item which restores the Commission’s initial figures.
With regard to amendments which the Commission cannot accept, I would like to say that, firstly, there is the one which refers to increasing the ambitions of this programme, that is, achieving a saving of 1.5%. In my view we should not be setting unreasonable figures but rather discussing achievable and ambitious objectives, because the objective is 1% per year, which will add up and eventually lead to considerable savings. For this reason we can accept neither Amendment No 2 nor Amendment No 6, insofar as this issue is concerned.
With regard to the legal aspect, the SAVE programme is not a legislative programme. Legislative action and proposals may be brought into play, but it is not in itself a legislative programme. For this reason, we cannot accept Amendments Nos. 1 and 3, nor part of Amendment No 6.
Honourable Members, the SAVE programme is intended to provide a framework of action in the field of energy efficiency. We believe that this formula has worked adequately in the past and that it would not be advisable, even with the best intentions, to add too many details or standards which will ultimately hinder the effective implementation of the programme. We therefore require a certain degree of flexibility and for this reason we cannot accept Amendments Nos. 8 and 9.
Finally, and in the hope of finding a compromise, we can accept Amendment No 7, despite the fact that it presents a little difficulty, requiring some amendments of its wording."@en1
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