Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-02-Speech-1-115"
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"en.20090202.16.1-115"2
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"Madam President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, may I express my thanks to the rapporteur, Anne Laperrouze, for the truly cooperative manner in which our deliberations were conducted? Let me also extend my thanks to the staff of the secretariats for their invaluable contribution.
Against the backdrop of the latest gas crisis, the Second Strategic Energy Review is extremely well-timed. Security of supply and solidarity among the Member States must be at the heart of the European energy policy. I firmly believe that it would make a distinct improvement if the call contained in this report for greater diversification of the gas corridors were answered. Moreover, before the end of this year the Commission must also present a proposal for the revision of the Gas Directive of 2004 in order to incorporate a requirement for binding and effective national and EU emergency plans.
However, as members of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, we attach fundamental importance to the duty of EU Member States to keep a special eye, even in normal times, on the most vulnerable consumers in society, namely those who are victims of fuel poverty. There is still a lack of national strategies for tackling this problem. That is why my group has tabled an additional amendment calling on Member States to make real efforts to address this problem.
The report emphasises the particular importance of energy saving and energy efficiency. The most efficient and cost-effective ways to improve security of supply are quite clearly to increase energy efficiency and to make energy savings. At the same time we must have ambitious and realistic aims for Europe’s future energy supply. I am pleased to see that we are moving in this direction, for example by calling for the target of a 60% share of renewables in our energy mix by 2050. The report also emphasises the special significance attaching to local initiatives in the quest for a successful climate and energy policy. The Covenant of Mayors has a key role to play in this respect, but it is also important to support other, similar approaches, like the idea of a Covenant of Islands. The bottom line, however, is that our objectives will be difficult to achieve without investments in the infrastructure of energy networks and further liberalisation of the internal market. We need a functioning single energy market with fair competition and with guaranteed free network access and equal distribution rights for all producers. The coming weeks will be crucial in this respect. What we need are the creation and development of a smart electricity network comprising ICT-based combined power stations and decentralised energy production. That is the only way in which energy resources can be efficiently channelled into the areas where they are really needed. We need a European ‘supergrid’ that taps into and links the enormous potentials in the North Sea, the Baltic and the Mediterranean region.
Where the report is untenable, however, is in its call to the Commission to draw up a specific road map for nuclear investments. For this reason my group has tabled an amendment that clearly underlines our common interest in nuclear safety while emphasising that whether Member States invest in nuclear energy must remain their own sovereign decision. My own personal opinion is that we do not need nuclear energy."@en1
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