Renewables decision embarrasses presidency

Date: 11/02/1999

By Chris Johnstone

ENERGY Commissioner Christos Papoutsis' last-minute decision to ditch a proposed directive on renewable energy has angered national governments and left the German presidency with an embarrassing gap in its programme.

Papoutsis only alerted Bonn to the fact that he no longer wanted to table his proposals at the end of January, long after Germany had decided to make renewable energy one of the centre-pieces of its six months in charge of EU business.

“We were pressing the Commission to come forward with a proposal and were looking forward to getting some conclusions by the end of the presidency,” said a German source.

Papoutsis' decision left a meeting of energy experts last week without a Commission proposal to focus on. “There were some suggestions that we should download draft copies of the Commission's directive from the Internet and discuss them anyway,” said one diplomat.

Papoutsis' close advisers claim he got cold feet about the proposed directive, aimed at phasing out some national support schemes for renewable energy and creating a competitive European market for 'green' power, after signs of hesitation from EU governments. This has prompted some to cast Germany as the villain, rather than the victim, of the affair.

But officials from other EU member states say Bonn's protestations that it was genuinely anxious for the Commission to produce proposals are justified, despite a vigorous campaign against the plan by the powerful German wind lobby. “Even though Germany had problems with drafts of the proposal, it was still keen for it to come forward,” said one diplomat.

The wind lobby's campaign included calling on firms to write to Commission President Jacques Santer, Commissioners and MEPs. The sector's protests were prompted by fears for the future of a national scheme offering guaranteed prices for all power it could feed into the national grid.

The European Wind Energy Association also raised the potentially explosive question of whether renewable energy firms could be in line for compensation if the Commission forced changes in national support schemes once investments had been agreed.

The principle of such payments has been established, with the institution currently vetting claims from most EU electricity firms for compensation for mothballing power plants because of the liberalisation of the market.

Papoutsis' decision will also put pressure on competition officials to deal with a backlog of complaints from renewable energy and electricity companies about problems created by current rules.