§ Viscount Cranborneasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will make a statement about the meeting of the European Communities' Council of Energy Ministers on 16 March.
§ Mr. John MooreThe Council of Ministers (Energy) met on 16 March. I attended on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy.
The Council reviewed the energy supply situation and considered communications from the Commission on the rational use of energy, nuclear power, coal and natural gas. The Council expressed its conviction that it was necessary, despite the easy oil market, to maintain progress towards the Community objective of reducing dependence on imported oil. The Council was unanimous about the need to promote efficiency in the use of energy. I stressed the importance of achieving this objective by market forces based on economic pricing of energy and supplemented by Government measures to provide information to consumers and to remedy imperfections in 113W the market. The Commission's paper is to be studied by the Committee of Permanent Representatives with a view to discussion at the next meeting of the Energy Council.
The Commission's papers on nuclear power and coal were remitted to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for further study. The United Kingdom delegation made clear the importance we attached to the development on an economic basis of the Community's indigenous resources of coal. The Commission will undertake further work on the natural gas position in the Community.
The Council received from the Committee of Permanent Representatives the report on energy pricing that it had commissioned at its meeting on 27 October. The Commission was invited to study the position sector by sector with a view to ensuring that pricing policies conform to the principles adopted by the Council. The Commission will also develop its work on transparency of energy prices.
The Council confirmed the procedures for handling a tight oil market agreed at their meeting on 27 October as a basis for discussion with other industrialised countries. Similar procedures were adopted by the International Energy Agency on 10 December. The Council invited member States to try to hold oil stocks at a level at least equal to 90 days of 1980 consumption rather than allow them to drop to the lower level of 90 days of 1981 consumption. The United Kingdom delegation stated that in view of our position as an oil producer there was no need for this action on stocks in the United Kingdom.