De Palacio zapped by power-cut claim

Date: 09/10/2003

By Karen Carstens

EUROPE can expect more power blackouts of the sort seen recently in Italy, the UK, Denmark and Sweden, a leading Green MEP warned yesterday (8 October).

Claude Turmes said the EU is heading for a "major crisis", with the risk of more massive power failures particularly acute in southern Europe.

He argued that this is due to soaring demand for electricity in Italy, Spain and Portugal.

The Luxembourger claimed that the European Commission is at a fork in the "energy supply road", but intent on choosing the "wrong path".

This "errant way", promoted by Transport and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio, entails tapping into cross-border nuclear and other energy supplies via an extensive power grid, he claimed, while a more decentralized approach using a mix of sources, including renewables, would reduce the risk of blackouts.

Turmes warned that this year's two massive power failures in Italy, one in June and the other last month, illustrate the drama that could unfold.

"There has been an 8% increase in electricity use between last summer and this summer in Italy," he said, adding that this figure is set to rise as ever more Italians purchase air-conditioning units for their homes.

"We are heading for a major crisis," said Turmes, who was speaking on the sidelines of a wind energy event at the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Last June's blackout in Italy, which imports 16% of its power from France via Switzerland, occurred because power lines overheated.

The second, which struck the country on 28 September, was triggered by a tree falling on a line in the Alps.

More than 55 million people were plunged into darkness as a result - at least five million more than in the power cuts which hit the eastern US and Canada in August.

Italy is seen as particularly vulnerable to blackouts: it abandoned nuclear power in 1987 and is dismantling its four nuclear generating plants.

But Turmes, unsurprisingly, does not see a return to nuclear as a solution. Instead, he argues that "money should be devoted towards stabilizing electricity demand and generating localized electricity production".

Along with fellow Green MEP Monica Frassoni, Turmes is due to voice his concerns at a briefing in the Parliament today (9 October).

They will focus on an internal communication circulated to the College of Commissioners on 1 October by de Palacio, in the wake of Italy's most recent blackout.

They claim it misled other commissioners "with flawed information".

De Palacio's spokesman Gilles Gantelet strongly refutes this, saying that the MEPs are missing the point.

"This is a joke - they have decided to make de Palacio a scapegoat," he said, adding that Green politicians often "conveniently overlook" that the Commission vice-president has also backed renewables.

He pointed out that de Palacio had championed the EU's first-ever renewables directive, approved two years ago, which sets an ambitious voluntary target of doubling the Union's overall share of renewables by 2010.

Moreover, he said, the liberalization of the EU's energy and gas markets was well under way, with measures to this end approved by MEPs earlier this year.

"I don't see the point [of Turmes' complaint]," said Gantelet. "Are they saying all these things are wrong?"

Denmark and Sweden were hit by power failures on 23 September, while parts of London suffered blackouts on 28 August.

Claude Turmes, a leading Green MEP, warned on 8 October 2003 that the European Union is heading for a 'major crisis' with the risk of further huge power failures, particularly in southern Europe due to growing demand for power in Portugal, Spain and Italy.