Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-07-Speech-1-106"

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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to begin by carrying out a quick analysis of the surrounding world to show how matters stand in the Europe for which we are together responsible. We have the very large oil-producing countries in the Middle East, where there is unrest and where oil resources are limited. On the other side of us, we have a very large country, Russia, where Putin has seen that energy is power and where he is accumulating more and more of this power, in the form of the various energy companies in Russia, in his own hands, that is to say literally in the Kremlin. We have ten new Member States that are very dependent indeed upon energy imports from Russia. In addition, we have old Member States, for example Germany, where half of gas imports come from Russia. Seen from the point of view of security policy, all this means, then, a very unbalanced and unsettled situation. What is more, we have huge environmental problems, which we are all agreed must be solved, together with very ambitious environmental objectives. At the same time, energy prices are rising. Consumption is rising. European industry constantly needs more energy, as do households and transport. As I have already mentioned, certain countries are hugely dependent upon imports. We have enormous problems with energy networks. In Sweden, we had a storm which meant that getting on for 50 000 households, together of course with industry and small enterprises in the areas affected, were without electricity for more than two months after this storm, something that is completely unacceptable. We also remember when the whole of Italy was plunged into darkness for many hours. We thus have an instability in the energy networks that is not acceptable. The European Union has described what are known as the TEN projects as being incredibly important, but we see how, in area after area, they come to a standstill and do not develop at the rate anticipated in the original decisions. All in all, we are thus in an extremely worrying situation. When it comes to energy policy in Europe, we must stabilise access to energy. We must ensure that the transmission networks operate and are stable and that the companies invest in new technology so that simple storms or similar events do not entail protracted power failures. We must ensure that the TEN projects work. My first question is therefore as follows: how will the Commission ensure that the energy supply is stabilised? In addition, we must transform the energy supply in Europe, that is to say we must obtain the environmentally friendly energy that we are agreed is needed. This means that the Commission has a very great responsibility. It is not usual for there to be cooperation between policy areas, but we have an agricultural reform whereby biomass could be produced on portions of agricultural land in Europe that are at present unused. We have industry that requires energy. We also have both environmental and employment objectives that must be complied with. I therefore want, secondly, to know how different parts of the Commission cooperate in order to achieve solutions to these problems. Thirdly, we need to give new impetus to the energy supply, that is to say produce more energy. My question concerns what is being done to ensure that, through district heating, co-generation etc., Europe’s basic industry also produces more energy. Mr President, energy is power. The thing is, to ensure that this power is used in the right way."@en1

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