§ Llewellyn SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what matters were discussed, what matters were decided, and what votes were taken at the Energy Council meeting on 1 June. [26698]
§ Mr. EggarThe Council considered several issues and received reports from the Commission on matters of interest. I represented the United Kingdom. Progress was made in a number of areas. In particular, the Council reached a common position on both the guidelines and the favourable context decisions in respect of trans-European energy networks.
I expressed concern at the lack of progress made on the proposals to liberalise the electricity market, which had been under discussion for over two years. I also stressed the UK's commitment to opening up the energy markets and emphasised the importance of access to networks and of allowing distributors, as well as large industrial users, to choose suppliers. Satisfactory conclusions were agreed which noted the result of the Commission study, produced at the request of the November 1994 Energy Council, which sets the conditions to be met by the single buyer approach before it could be regarded as being equivalent to negotiated third party access. The conclusions acknowledged that agreement had been reached on a number of these conditions, notably on the need for authorisation of independent power producers outside the tendering procedure, but a number of issues remained to be discussed, including the definition of independent power producers and the definition of consumers eligible to seek alternative supplies. The conclusions also set the agenda for the continuing work on this dossier during the Spanish presidency with the aim of reaching a common position by the end of the year.
The Council also reached agreement on a resolution on the Green Paper on energy policy, which is intended to help steer the Commission in its preparation of a White Paper expected later in the year. The resolution identified observations and principles to be taken into account in the consideration of energy policy including competitiveness, security of supply and the environment. I stressed the need for completion of the internal energy market as the most important aspect of energy policy at European level.
The Council held a discussion on THERMIE II programme on the basis of a presidency compromise proposal. I expressed strong misgivings the UK had about the proposal, but offered to consider a programme limited to dissemination. Discussion will continue in the working group.
65WThe Commission gave an oral report on the progress of the proposed directive on energy efficiency requirements for fridges and freezers, which aims to improve the average efficiency of domestic electrical appliances by removing the most inefficient appliances from the market.
The Commission also gave an oral report on its review of Community legislation in the energy sector, which was in the course of preparation in response to a request by last November's Energy Council. The Council urged the Commission to produce its report as soon as possible.
In addition, progress reports were received on the establishment of the energy charter treaty secretariat and the energy dimension of the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean conference to be held in November.
No formal votes were taken at the Council.