EHA was present at the recent Stakeholder’s Conference on the Future of Energy Policy on September 30th in Brussels. The European Commission presented the results of the Energy Strategy 2011-2020 Consultation, and various industry representatives gave their views on how to achieve a low carbon energy system.  Opening the Conference, European Comissioner  for Energy, Gunther Oettinger,  gave insight on  his priorities in the coming energy strategy.  Within his speech, he continued to emphasize that his first priority is to put into place a new energy efficiency action plan pushing toward most efficient energy technologies, Smart Grids, and Improvement in Energy Storage.

Following the Comissioner, the Belgian Minister for Climate and Energy, Paul Magnette took the floor. Informing attendants on the following important dates and proceedings: At Council level the Belgian presidency had an informal meeting of energy ministers in Early September. Meetings of Directorate General will take place on the 7th October. A Benchmark Report, having an overview of Energy Legislation and looking at energy poverty and the measures that need to be taken will be published by The Commissioner Oettinger  at the end of October 2010. Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called on a special meeting only on Energy issues on February 4^th to discuss Council Priorities.
The EU Parliament discussed a draft report on the Energy 2011- 2020 recently in which a referenece to hydrogen is included under point 42:  “Supports the development of cost-efficient new technologies for electrical storage, including the use of hydrogen and other fuel cells, which would allow to increase the share of variable renewables”. The EHA has worked over the last months with the Parliament’s rapporteur Lena  Bobinska  to ensure the inclusion of hydrogen in this document.