A Greener Europe - Montesquieu Institute

Today, at the last Energy Council meeting during the Danish EU presidency Member States endorsed the compromise on the Energy Efficiency Directive reached with the European Parliament in negotiations Wednesday and confirmed by Coreper Thursday.

"We have reached an agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive. With this we will reach more than 17 % energy savings in 2020. The directive is a minimum directive, so we may get even closer to the 20 % energy efficiency target. This is a great victory for the EU - and a very concrete contribution to our common green growth agenda " says president of the Council, Martin Lidegaard, Danish minister for Climate, Energy and Buildings .

The core of the directive is the obligation on energy companies that they must help their customers save energy. This requirement means that the industry and the energy sector will have a shared responsibility to deliver concrete savings.

At the Council meeting 26 Member States backed presidency conclusions on the Energy Roadmap 2050. The conclusions send a clear signal to the Commission to present proposals for a new policy framework for 2030. The framework should be in line with the long term decarbonisation objective and based on increased energy efficiency, increased renewable energy, and new smart energy infrastructure.

"26 Member States want the Commission to present policy proposals for the post 2020 timeframe. I think this is a very strong signal to the Commission and a clear signal to the market, " Martin Lidegaard says.

During lunch, the Council debated renewable energy in transport and whether the existing regulatory framework is sufficient - given the technical developments - and provides the necessary modalities for achieving the 10 % target in the best possible way.

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