23.12.2009   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 318/39

1.1

Over the past term the EESC has been working on the various issues covered by European energy efficiency policies and the different aspects thereof (external dimension, short- and long-term energy challenges, supply and security policies) with a view to achieving an economically-viable, sustainable energy policy. It would stress the importance of promoting and building on the results of the EESC's energy efficiency days, in cooperation with all stakeholders, end users and Member States. In view of this, it calls on the Commission and the new Parliament to act firmly on the recommendations already made in previous opinions (1).

1.2

In addition, the EESC feels that implementation of an energy policy promoting efficiency and new ‘clean’ technologies could be a solution not just to the environmental issue but also as regards reducing dependence on energy supply and coping with the high costs of raw materials and the effects thereof on end users.

The European Economic and Social Committee recommends stepping up endeavours focusing on systematically involving end users (in particular consumers and small businesses) with regard to the new constraints established by the March 2007 European Council and efforts to mitigate the current economic crisis.

1.3

The EESC believes that the European and national social partnership will encourage greater involvement of energy end users, particularly small businesses and their representative bodies, forms of public and private partnership at local level, and cooperatives, contributing more effectively to the achievement of European energy-efficiency targets and the green economy. This commitment, if addressed in the most appropriate context – for example within the European social dialogue agenda (including at sectoral level) – could make a practical contribution to increasing jobs and creating new skilled occupations related to the energy sector and the distribution of new services.

1.4

The EESC thinks that the decision to strengthen the European dimension of energy policies should also encourage reinforcement in the Internal Market and the domestic markets of a sustainable development strategy as well as greater cooperation in science and technology capable of reviving public and private investment, which could take the form of enhanced cooperation between EU Member States.

1.5

The EESC is disappointed and concerned at the shortage of homogenous, detailed information and data on end-use energy efficiency. This makes it difficult to define statistically-sound, harmonised indicators, not least because of the scarcity of historical data at European level accessible to end users.

The EESC reiterates its concern at Member States’ failure to draw up the National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAP), provided for by the Directive in question, in time.

1.6

The EESC therefore feels it is necessary and urgent, in order to encourage full, uniform and more rigorous implementation at national level of European energy-efficiency policies, to adopt – in cooperation with the Commission and the Member States and after systematically consulting the bodies representing end users – a widely-accepted European monitoring system that is both fair and makes energy bills easier to understand and compare.

1.7

In addition, the EESC believes that the sectoral dimension of European energy-efficiency policies needs to be reinforced if they are to be better implemented, and to allow for more substantial monitoring and impact analysis in respect of these policies. The impact of energy policy differs according to the kind of economic activity, both as regards businesses which use energy (whose issues vary according to consumption levels, the kind of processes etc.), and as regards businesses which operate in the various sectors of the energy chain (e.g. plant producers and installers, energy providers, construction companies etc.), where there is huge untapped potential for saving energy.

1.8

Moreover, the EESC firmly believes that European programmes such as the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) and others urgently need to be simplified, and this cannot be put off; end users should be more involved in these programmes whose measures should be more coherent and integrated (as is the case, for example, with the ECAP programme). A new integrated programme is therefore proposed, capable of better coordinating these activities for the benefit of end users.

The EESC calls on the EU, the Member States and businesses to invest sufficient resources in applied energy research and its transfer to the end user; in generating savings from using the new information and communication technologies (ICT) in the technical and high-tech professions; and in energy development and innovation; and recommends more inclusive global cooperation in this area.

1.9

The EESC feels that the EU should urgently adopt tax and credit-access instruments and policies more geared to supporting energy saving, thereby facilitating all end users, particularly SMEs and public-private partnerships, which (individually or collectively) use more efficient, sustainable production models.

Aware of the key role played by education and training in disseminating a European energy-efficiency culture, the European Economic and Social Committee proposes to launch an extraordinary consultation with the social partners and all stakeholders at European and national level in order to redirect existing EU funds, reinforcing professional skills and profiles associated with energy efficiency, and to encourage provision of information to the general public and awareness-raising.

2.1

The objective of European Directive 2006/32/EC was:

To this end, the Directive lays down a number of general objectives, including:

—

some measures were too ineffective and easy to get round when transposing the Directive into national legislation;

—

National Action Plans and national transposal measures which were less coherent and effective than provided for in the Directive;

—

flanking programmes and measures that were piecemeal and insufficiently coordinated;

—

the lack of homogeneous data and information, essential to monitor and assess the impact of the Directive on end users, meant that the initiative was utterly inadequate and incapable of facilitating coherent, sustainable development of energy efficiency in the EU.

—

developing a European expert task force and a network of independent energy-efficiency bodies for end users, particularly businesses (especially SMEs and the craft sector);

—

producing periodic reports on EU policies and their impact on end users (especially SMEs);

—

an information platform in several languages which is easy to use and easily accessible; and consolidating and enhancing relations between European and national representative organisations and main stakeholders.

4.1.1

The process of transposing the Directive into national legislation is still beset by significant problems and shortcomings as regards end users, in respect of:

Greater surveillance, monitoring and penalty measures are therefore needed from the relevant national and EU bodies, along with more effective, rigorous monitoring of energy operators (see Articles 11 and 13 of the Directive).

4.1.2

The efficiency of the means of access to ‘financial instruments for energy savings’ and the functioning of the relevant ‘mechanisms’ should be reinforced and further developed technically and politically, for the benefit of end users, with particular regard to energy taxation. These instruments and their results should be specifically monitored in close cooperation with European and national end-user bodies and with particular regard to ways of mitigating the rebound effect. The rebound effect, as emerged at the EESC hearing on ‘Enhancing energy efficiency policies and programmes by end users’, held at the Italian National Council for Economy and Labour (CNEL) on 9 July 2009, refers to the fact that measures taken to improve energy efficiency can sometimes increase rather than decrease energy consumption.

4.1.3

The energy audits and white certificates (Article 12) are also particularly important for the development of energy services and should therefore be further reinforced by the Member States.

European social dialogue, including at sectoral level, should also make a useful contribution here to the implementation of energy efficiency policies, thus fostering employment and increasing the competitiveness of the productive system.

4.1.4

Calculation methods are laid down for measuring energy savings. These methods have yet to be properly developed and harmonised. Thus, better definition is needed of calculation methods to be shared with end users and harmonised among the Member States.

Lastly, the Commission has launched numerous infringement procedures for failure to transpose all or part of the Directive: the costs and red tape arising from this will be passed on to end users.