Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-14-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20060614.19.3-294"2
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"The issue of the sustainability of biofuel use is generally an important one in terms of the European Union’s sustainable energy strategy. The fact is that we have, during the Austrian Presidency, put down a deliberate marker to the effect that Europe must, in future, as a matter of fundamental political principle, make better progress where the sustainability of biofuels in concerned.
The action plan for biomass and the EU biofuels strategy involved us having communications submitted to us, which were discussed in depth and taken forward by the Council as appropriate. The issue under consideration is how, in future, biofuels may be used as an admixture or as new fuels for general purposes. We see it as an indisputable truth – and as one that we must join together in communicating throughout Europe – that the production of biofuels and bio-propellants of every kind, ranging across the whole spectrum from biodiesel to ethanol, cannot work if it is detrimental to the environment. Here in this European Union of ours, the production of biofuels, too, must be founded upon the principle of sustainability. Having visited plenty of environmental conferences over the last few months, I can tell you that it is also important that we should take care that consideration is given to the sustainability principle in the international trade in biofuels, which are produced using the whole range of methods and the most varied raw materials.
During the Presidency – and particularly at the meeting in March of this year – we have discussed how to take Europe’s energy policy in a new direction, with particular reference to fuels. In a conclusion dated 8 June this year, the Council and the Commission called for proposals to be made concerning the promotion of the cost-efficient and sustainable use of biomass for heating and cooling purposes, for the revision of the legal provisions applicable to animal by-products, for the use – since biogas is going to be a live topic in the future – of by-products from agriculture and food production to be promoted as a source of renewable energy, and for an evaluation of the possible extension of the rules on energy crops to all the Member States; these are the cornerstones for the way energy is to be organised in the future. That is vital, particularly in the aftermath of the enlargement of the European Union to include ten new Member States.
The Commission has also announced its intention of submitting a communication on the energy crops rules by the end of 2006 – which I see as a key date – and that this communication would include practical proposals for this sector. What I mean by that is that we, in the agricultural reform of 2003, with a view to sustainability and to the creation of a new source of income for rural areas in Europe, took steps to make use of 1.5 million hectares of sustainable raw materials for the whole range of alternative forms of energy in all areas, and it has to be clear to us today that we are very far from making full use of those 1.5 million hectares.
The potential is there, and may well become even greater, and we await with interest the results of the evaluation and the Commission’s proposal, and, in both the Agriculture and Environment Councils, we will, over the coming months and years, have to give in-depth consideration to the challenges of a sustainable energy policy, for sustainable and renewable energy production is the key to Europe’s independence in energy and to its future projects in the field of energy production."@en1
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