Turmes to draft the Parliament’s renewables position

A Green MEP will be in charge of drafting the European Parliament’s position on the renewables directive.

Luxembourg’s Claude Turmes has been confirmed as the Parliament’s rapporteur on the renewables directive, the first of the highly-coveted jobs on the energy package to be decided.

The names of the other rapporteurs could be announced next month, but the decision may be delayed until March if the political groups cannot agree how to share them out. The Parliament’s environment committee will hold a co-ordinating meeting on 20 February in Strasbourg to discuss how the different political groups will split the remaining proposals of the energy and climate change package - the emissions trading scheme, national targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon capture and storage. The renewables directive falls under the remit of the committee on industry, research and energy and was decided sooner.

Speaking about his dossier, Turmes said that the first important issue was having the vote on the renewables directive during the current legislature, whose term expires in June 2009, when new European elections will be held. He also said that he would stress the importance of energy efficiency in his report. "The cheapest renewable is energy efficiency and it’s a pity that the European Commission and the member states have not delivered what they have promised," he said.

In November 2006, the Commission published an energy-efficiency action plan intended to put the EU on course to save 20% of its energy by 2020.

The Socialist group is keen to appoint the rapporteur on the emissions trading scheme, especially as the centre-right EPP-ED group took this dossier last time. Names in the frame for rapporteurs’ jobs include Britta Thomsen, a Danish Socialist, and Chris Davies, a UK Liberal Democrat. A spokesman for the EPP-ED group said that he could not give names at this stage.

A senior EU official said that the Union should have the climate change and energy laws adopted before the UN climate change conference, COP15, which will take place in Copenhagen on 30 November-1 December 2009. The official added that for this to happen, EU government leaders should reach agreement on the climate change and energy package at the December EU summit, under the French presidency.

A Green MEP will be in charge of drafting the European Parliament’s position on the renewables directive.