Energy Council (Hansard, 14 June 1994)

§ Mr. McLoughlin

The Council considered several issues and received reports from the Commission on matters of interest. I represented the United Kingdom.

The Council reached unanimous political agreement on guidelines for energy trans-European networks. It was agreed that a formal common position, including a decision on a list of projects of common interest, should, if possible, be taken at the next Energy Council. This would allow enough time for the projects to be considered individually and for the opinion of the European Parliament to be taken into account.

The Commission reported to the Council on progress on the European energy charter treaty. It was agreed that the Community should work for the treaty to be concluded later this month.

There was a discussion of the electricity liberalisation directive, and general endorsement of the need for further work on five key areas. These are: access to networks, public service obligations, a system for providing new capacity, unbundling of accounts and the role of the system operator.

There was a general discussion of the need for a Community energy policy. A Commission proposal for a Green Paper was welcomed. The importance of consulting widely within industry was supported by several member states. The Commission presented its proposal for Thermie II, which is concerned with support for near-market energy technology projects, their demonstration and dissemination of the results.

The Council adopted, unanimously, conclusions on two Commission communications. One was on energy and cohesion and the other on nuclear safety in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The hydrocarbon licensing directive, which had been agreed at the 10 December 1993 Energy Council, was adopted unanimously without discussion.

Apart from the "A" points which were agreed without discussion, no formal votes were taken by the Council.