The first ‘milestone’ in this exercise was the Communication: “A sustainable future for transport: Towards an integrated, technology-led and user friendly system” (COM (2009)279/4), adopted by the Commission on 17 June 2009. The vision and ideas put forward in the Communication were meant to stimulate further debate aimed at identifying possible policy options to meet the identified challenges of the future in order to achieve the goals of the Common Transport Policy. In response to the Communication, the EHA had sent out a press release on that occasion indicating the need to coordinate electric transport infrastructure development for battery cars and hydrogen vehicles as well as a position paper as a contribution to the consultation.

Thus, the 20 November conference aimed at building the framework of the forthcoming White Paper and at debating about the biggest challenges of the transport policy for the next years with a view to clarify the different positions and to find the right balance between the different stakeholder views.

According to Antonio Tajani, the White Paper must respond to these three challenges:

-use “green-corridors” (in which rail, sea and inland waterway connections are provided, together with modern infrastructure that supports clean technologies) as a best practice for future projects

-how to turn the consultancy to reality?

-how to  involve  the stakeholder in the drafting of the White Paper?

The decarbonisation of transport and the need to better exploit the networks were particularly addressed during the conference.

On this first issue, Matthias Ruete (DG TREN) considered that “There is widespread agreement that decarbonising transport should be at the centre of transport policy in the coming decades. The need for mobility will continue to increase, but transport will only be able to meet this demand if it takes a sustainable path”.

A call was launched to coordinate the cities actions with a view to develop low carbon technologies, thus cities have a major role to play with the development of smart grids for buildings and houses as intelligent infrastructure.

Another hey issue is the funds and research for alternative fuels, which need to be increased, in particular for road transport, the dominant mode of transport.

Regarding the infrastructure, it was stressed on the need to imbricate this issue with the development of transport. For electric vehicles, public investment for the development of infrastructure was considered as fundamental.

However, this ambitious action plan totally neglects the transport sector, which the EU executive plans to deal with separately. A White Paper is expected next year, detailing measures targeted specifically at transport, which accounts for almost a fifth of EU primary energy consumption. The Commission plans to table the Action Plan this month, although sources say this looks unlikely and expect delays.

” Up-grading investment in research in clean technologies is urgent if Europe is to make the road to Copenhagen and beyond cheaper. With today’s estimates, the Commission wants to make the SET Plan a springboard to leap into a low carbon economy, which is only possible if public and private actors pool resources in a coherent way. Increasing smart investments in research today is an opportunity to develop new sources of growth, to green our economy and to ensure the EU’s competitiveness when we come out of the crisis. ” EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik, said.

Regarding in particular hydrogen and fuel cells, the Communication states that: “The Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) on fuel cells and hydrogen was established for 2008-2013 with a budget of 470 M€ of Community funding to be at least matched by industry. The JTI has the minimum critical mass needed to develop and validate efficient and cost-competitive technologies for the various applications”.

The Communication has also pointed the crucial issues facing the commercialization of fuel cell cars: “Meeting the market entry targets set by industry will require substantial additional effort. In particular, more and larger scale demonstrations and pre-commercial deployment activities for portable, stationary, transport applications will be required, as will long-term research and technology development to build up a competitive fuel cell chain and a sustainable hydrogen infrastructure across the EU. The additional public and private funding needed is currently estimated as €5 bn for the period 2013-2020”.

The topics dominating this week agenda were institutional/power-oriented and concerned climate talks, the EU strategy to United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) and practical questions of the share of renewable energy in electricity consumption.

Environment

The Swedish Minister for the Environment, Andreas Carlgren, in the ENVI Committee explained the environmental priorities for the Swedish presidency. With a view to the COP 15, they are focused on 4 areas: climate change, energy saving, biodiversity and renewable energy.

On climate change; he argued not only for the determination of ambitious targets at the COP 15 but also for the carrying out of these. Thus, the negotiations should focus on the way to put in practice these objectives. He emphasized, then, the need of a stronger relationship with the developing countries, especially with the growing ones, as India. In this framework, he argued that significant funds to help poorer and undeveloped countries should be implemented to establish more environmentally friendly economic plans and that technology transfers should be increased at short and mid-term to improve the efficiency of the work already accomplished. At the same time, in order to achieve an ambitious agreement at the COPO 15, a dialogue with China, United States or Australia should be increased in order to set ambitious targets, he added.

During the meeting, MEPs asked several questions about the measures to be taken in order to control the application of the implementation of COP15 objectives (in the EU and outside its borders). In particular, Satu Hassi (Greens/EFA, Fin) asked about the financing measures for the developing countries and noted that, as Carlgren said, they have to be linked with greenhouse caps. She joined her colleague Corinne Lepage (ALDE, Fr) and José Manuel Fernandès (EPP, Port) who argued for facilitation of the financial and more specifically of the technological transfer, which is crucial for them.

Besides, Christine de Veyrac (EPP, Fr) insisted on the crucial role played by cities and the need to develop “sustainable cities” as well as Public Private Partnerships and asked which the Swedish objectives on this matter are, considering however, that it is difficult for the EU to act at municipality level, due to subsidiary.

Industry, Research and Energy

Minister for Industry Maud Olofsson called for an European eco-efficient economy in front on ITRE Committee. She said she hoped an agreement with Parliament on the energy efficiency package (energy performance of buildings directive, the energy labelling directive and the tyre labelling regulation) would be reached this autumn, so as “to send a clear message to the international climate negotiations” in December in Copenhagen.

Ms Olofsson added that “The Swedish Presidency will do its utmost to prevent further disruption of gas supplies to Europe“. To enable the EU to deal with any supply disruption in the future, the Presidency would start working on the Commission’s proposal for a security of natural gas supply regulation, she said. Moreover, the Swedish Presidency will also try to reach a first reading agreement with MEPs on the European Earth observation programme Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES), stressed Ms Olofsson.

Regarding, specifically, the recast of the Directive 2002/91/EC on the energy performance of buildings, the Parliament’s Rapporteur on the proposal, Silvia-Adriana Ticau (S&D, Rom), briefed about recent developments in the Parliament and the Council of Ministers. She said that MEPs must wait until Member States agree a common position on the plans before they begin their second reading. If she’s hoping as well that the Council will reach an agreement this autumn, before COP15, she recognized that only high objectives must be reached and that a weak Directive will be unacceptable.

Besides, the exchange of views with Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on the gas supply situation (Ukraine-Russia) highlighted the need to diversify sources of supply in order to ensure the European energy security. MEP, Teresa Riera Madurell (S&D, Spa) called, in particular, for the increase of the part of renewable energy in electricity consumption.

On September 3, Tobias Krantz, Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research discussed with ITRE Committee about the priorities of Swedish Presidency in the research area. He considered that the budget granted to research and innovation should be increased and that some money some be transferred from agriculture budget to research. In response to Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Bel) he added that the current funds should be used more efficiently.

He also encouraged the promotion of research at universities and public institutions levels and of the deepening of their relation with industry sector in order to participate to the “knowledge triangle”.

He also agreed with MEPs –in particular Romana Jordan Cizelj (EEP, Slov), Lena Ek (ALDE, Swe) and Teresa Riera Madurell who asked him about this issue, on the fact that bureaucracy imposed on researchers asking funds by virtue of the Seventh Framework Programme must be simplified. In this respect,  Marisa Matias (GUE, Por) underlined the importance of this simplification in order to develop the share of ideas and technologies with developing countries and to put forward European research.

Regional Development

Regional policy can play a key role in EU action to counter the economic crisis and prepare a better future for all regions, but it needs more local knowledge and less red tape, told regional policy Commissioner-designate Pawel Samecki to REGI Committee MEPs in a debate on Wednesday. MEPs questioned Mr Samecki about the future of EU regional policy, climate change, and the impact of the economic crisis at regional level. Notably, François Alfonsi (Greens/EFA, FR) wondered what the Commission plan was to re-think regional policy to tackle climate change more effectively. Mr.Samecki said that climate change was one of the candidates for core priority in the future  if there is agreement among all actors involved.

Maud Olofsson also spoke also before REGI Committee on September 3. She explained that the presidency will be focused on the transition towards an eco-efficiency economy as 30% of cohesion’s policy budget will be invest in green economy and that this should continue after 2013 .

Approval of new commissioners

Three commissioners were approved by the European Parliament on Thursday, as their predecessors had stepped down to become MEPs. After their audition by parliamentaries, on September 1, Pawel Samecki was endorsed as commissioner for regional policy, Algirdas Semeta took over the budget portfolio and Karel De Gucht development and humanitarian aid. Their mandate runs until the end of November as the European Commission will be renewed.

This newly reformed European Commission continues preparing for the COP 15 in December. Parliamentary support for the package of already-EU-approved environmental laws gives democratic thrust. These quantify reduction in emissions, energy efficiency and renewable source targets.