Only five EU member states are planning to buy renewable energy from other countries, while the EU as a whole is on track to exceed its 20% collective target, the European Commission said yesterday (11 March).
Italy will have the biggest shortage of domestically produced renewable energies, the Commission said in a summary of the forecast documents submitted by member states under the renewables directive. The country will have to buy around 1.2 Mtoe from other countries in order to meet its binding target, it stated.
Belgium, Denmark, Luxemburg and Malta were the other EU countries which expected to fall short of their targets with domestic production only.
By contrast, ten member states predict a surplus in 2020, which they could transfer to another member state, the Commission said. This would amount to about 2% of the total renewables required in 2020.
Spain and Germany plan the largest absolute amounts of surplus renewable energy on top of their binding commitments. Consequently, Germany expects to hit 18.7% instead of 18%, and Spain 22.7% instead of 20%.
In consequence, the EU as a whole is set to reach a 20.3% share of renewable energies in 2020, slightly exceeding its 20% target, the Commission said.
“These forecasts show that member states take renewable energy very seriously and are really dedicated to push their domestic production,” said Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. “It is an incentive to invest in green technology and the production of renewable energy,” he added.
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]]>536 MEPs yesterday asked the European Commission to finish its report on ‘innovative financing’ before the June G20 talks, so world leaders can come up with specific proposals on which banks will be taxed and how.
Just 80 MEPs voted against the EU executive’s examination of a bank tax – so far dubbed a financial transactions tax (FTT) in the legislature – amid 33 abstentions.
Plans still ‘embryonic’
World leaders will meet in Toronto in June this year and are expected to come to an agreement on how a global tax should be structured.
Though the European Parliament’s vote shows heightened interest in Brussels for a tax on banks, the EU institutions warn that much work remains to be done at both EU and global level on the shape and timing of such a tax.
“Plans for an FTT are very much in the embryonic phase,” a Parliament source told EurActiv.
The European Commission also said that its paper on innovative financing was currently being written and that it was too early to talk of legislation on a bank tax.
The Commission paper, like a parallel paper being drafted by the International Monetary Fund, is not only examining an FTT but also a levy on assets, as is the case with US President Barack Obama’s proposal.
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]]>The EU should impose a financial transactions tax (FTT) as soon as possible, with or without the US, economist Jeffrey Sachs told EurActiv in an interview. Faced with huge budget deficits and public anger, both the US and the EU will have to impose the tax soon, predicted the American economist.
Sachs has joined a London-based campaign for an EU tax on banks, heaping criticism on the US for ignoring the public good.
The economist encouraged the EU to draw up a plan on a financial sector tax at the next meeting of EU finance ministers on 16 March, even though the US is not on board yet.
Sachs told EurActiv that an overwhelming public mood in favour of a tax on banks will push governments to legislate soon and that the EU should impose a “broad-based” tax at a “modest rate”.
“We have a huge budget hole in the US and in Europe and I think there is plenty of evidence that the financial sector is under-taxed and under-regulated,” Sachs argued.
Both the UK and the US have been waiting for an IMF paper, due in April, and are weighing up the costs and benefits of the tax before they come to a decision.
Currently the US and the UK have different views on which instruments and banks should be taxed.
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]]>German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her backing on Monday (8 March) to a proposed European Monetary Fund to rescue ailing eurozone member countries but warned this would mean changing the European Union treaty.
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble threw his support behind the idea of an IMF-style rescue fund for Europe at the weekend, suggesting that countries with budget difficulties such as Greece could tap into it in future.
The European Commission said on Monday it was working with Germany, France and other European countries on the plans but a spokesman said it was too early to say whether the fund would be just a financial instrument or a new institutional body with its own staff and budget.
In Berlin, Merkel said that while details would have to be sorted out, the European Union needed to have a mechanism to help itself if it hit difficulties, even if it meant changing the EU treaty.
“I think the idea [of a European Monetary Fund] is a good one,” Merkel told Berlin-based journalists at the Foreign Press Association, adding issues such as who would contribute and how independent it would be still have to be looked at.
“Without changing the [EU] treaty, it cannot be done. We would need a treaty change,” she said. “If the European Union is to be capable of taking action, it will run into such questions,” she added. “The EU treaty will not be the end of history. Then we would be in a static system. I don’t want that, I want Europe to respond to new situations.”
She said the euro was based on the two anchors of the “no bailout” clause - under which no country can take on another eurozone state’s debts - and the Stability and Growth Pact’s fiscal deficit rules.
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]]>French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Sunday (7 March) that eurozone countries would help Greece if its financial problems worsened. Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he plans to make proposals soon on a new European institution to help ensure the stability of the euro zone.
Sarkozy was speaking after talks with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is looking to secure pledges of support from European capitals that will reassure markets and lower the debt-stricken country’s high borrowing costs.
“If Greece needs help, we will be there,” Sarkozy said at a joint news conference.
“The main actors on the European stage [have] decided to do whatever is needed to make sure Greece is not isolated,” he added, declining to give precise details of any aid plans but stressing that his economy minister was drawing up measures.
“Christine Lagarde, in tandem with her colleagues in the euro zone and in Europe [...] is working on a certain number of precise measures if Greece needs them,” he said.
Papandreou met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday. He had been hoping for specifics of a possible aid package and on Sunday told reporters he saw the outlines of a plan.
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]]>The birth of the European External Action Service, one of the most anticipated innovations of the Lisbon Treaty, will be a difficult one, admitted a top European Commission official yesterday (4 March).
João Vale de Almeida, director-general at the European Commission’s external relations department and future EU ambassador to Washington, spoke of the double challenge of setting up the European External Action Service (EEAS) fast and “right”. He was speaking at a conference organised by 14 European think-tanks, who presented a “contribution to the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian trio presidency”.
Vale de Almeida is a key player in the 13-member committee led by Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, in charge of producing a proposal for setting up the EEAS.
Based on her suggestions, EU heads of states and government are expected to come to a decision on the EU’s new diplomatic corps by the end of April (see ‘Background’).
“For the Lisbon Treaty, it took us a nine-year pregnancy,” Vale de Almeida said. Comparing this with the short timeframe for adopting the EEAS, he said “birth after three months will be very difficult”.
The top official said it was extremely important to design the EU’s new diplomatic service in “the best possible way” and called on EU member countries to show “political will”.
Implicitly, he appeared to confirm that the blueprint, already drafted by Ashton’s committee, was encountering difficulties in some member countries.
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]]>A Brussels gathering of EU politicians and policy experts yesterday (3 March) argued that the long-term ambitions of the European Commission’s ‘Europe 2020′ strategy for economic renewal will prove ineffective if they are not rooted in the ‘now’, with concrete proposals for immediate action to solve Europe’s economic crisis.
The conference, hosted by pro-integration lobby European Movement International, took place as Commission President José Manuel Barroso launched his strategy, which the Portuguese has made the cornerstone of his second term at the EU executive’s helm.
Participants, however, cautioned that a long-term strategy working towards a bright new tomorrow would hold no value if it failed to address the many problems facing Europe’s economy and citizens today.
Maria Joao Rodrigues, a key force behind Europe 2020’s predecessor, the Lisbon Strategy, argued that the latter did not succeed because there was a lack of suitable political instruments, a lack of financial means, and – most importantly – a lack of political will from EU member states to achieve its goals.
For the new plan to succeed where Lisbon failed, the one thing it must have above other things is credibility, she argued, particularly at a time of mass unemployment and economic uncertainty.
Other experts felt this credibility would prove unachievable, because new strategy outlines a series of lofty ambitions but fails to address the social, economic, financial and jobs crises currently crippling European growth.
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]]>In a controversial move, the European Commission yesterday (2 March) gave the green light for the first genetically-modified potato to be cultivated in the European Union.
The EU executive authorised the cultivation in the EU of Amflora, a genetically-modified potato developed by German chemical company BASF,
The move marked the bloc’s first GM cultivation approval in 12 years.
BASF plans to begin cultivating Amflora this year on 250 hectares in the Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany. The firm said it expected peak license fees of about 20-30 million euros ($27-40.6 million) per annum.
“Responsible innovation will be my guiding principle when dealing with innovative technologies,” said Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli.
After an extensive and thorough review of five pending GM files, it had become clear that there were no new scientific issues that merited further assessment, as those concerning safety had been fully addressed, the commissioner added.
The decision was based on a series of favourable safety assessments carried out over the years by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The EU executive also launched a reflection group on how to combine a European authorisation system with giving member states the freedom to decide on GMO cultivation.
Yesterday’s decision includes strict cultivation conditions to prevent GM potatoes from remaining in the fields after harvest and to ensure that Amflora’s seeds are not inadvertently disseminated into the wider environment, the Commission explained, in a bid to allay cross-contamination fears.
The EU executive also approved three genetically-modified maize types made by US biotech firm Monsanto for food and feed uses and import and processing in the European Union.
The EU executive said it plans to announce proposals by summer that would, if approved, allow governments to decide whether genetically modified crops can be grown within their borders.
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]]>The EU’s new growth strategy, due to be rubber-stamped by the new Barroso Commission on Wednesday (3 March), includes a blueprint for transforming Europe into an ‘Innovation Union’ by 2020.
A leaked draft of the ‘Europe 2020′ strategy ties together research, education, finance and intellectual property as part of a holistic approach likely to be reflected in the European Commission’s forthcoming innovation action plan.
Several of the proposed reforms are long-standing goals but officials say there is now unprecedented political impetus to fix old problems.
The ‘Innovation Union’ plan, one of nine “flagship initiatives,” commits Brussels to boosting investment in research and making Europe an attractive place to develop new products.
The completion of the European Research Area (ERA), improved access to capital and a review of EU funding systems are listed as priorities at EU level.
National governments will have to reform their innovation systems to boost cooperation between industry and universities, and “ensure a sufficient supply of science and engineering graduates” – something business groups have been pushing for long before the outbreak of the financial crisis.
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]]>EU ministers are set to give renewed consideration to French calls for a “carbon inclusion mechanism” in an attempt to curb unfair competition from countries like China, which have weaker climate protection laws. But opinion is still divided on the issue of carbon tariffs at the EU’s borders.
EU ministers in charge of competitiveness are meeting in Brussels today (1 March) to adopt conclusions on a “new industrial policy”.
“The discussion is expected to concentrate on key objectives for establishing the principles that should be included into a fresh and integrated approach to keep EU industry competitive,” reads a background statement prepared by the Spanish EU Presidency ahead of the meeting.
In the aftermath of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, EU ministers will debate ways of protecting industrial competitiveness from the risk of ‘carbon leakage’, meaning the relocation of factories, jobs and carbon dioxide emissions to countries with less stringent environment laws.
“We are underlining that carbon leakage is a major problem for industry,” said a diplomat from a large EU member state. “Above all, this is a major problem for the climate. And so we are repeating what we have said permanently - we have to protect ourselves from carbon leakage.”
A pet project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, border tariffs aimed at restoring fair competition between European industries and major polluters such as China have gained little support from other EU leaders, with the exception of Germany’s Angela Merkel.
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