48 Amendments of Bernd LANGE related to 2012/2259(INI)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Maintains, in the light of the impact assessment accompanying the latest communication and of the experience of the climate and energy package, that an EU-wide binding target for the proportion of final energy consumption to be accounted for by renewables again needs to be set after 2020 in order to provide clarity and security for investors in sufficient time and in that way enable renewables to be developed further; believes that the EU-wide binding target for the renewable component of final energy consumption should not be less than 40% to 45% and that it must be met through binding expansion targets in the Member States;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the share in Europe’s energy mix accounted for by renewable energy sources (RES) is growing in the short, medium and long term, and whereas, in accordance with the Energy Roadmap 2050, in 2050 RES will account for the largest single share of energy supplies;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission to submit an industrial strategy for renewables, covering everything from research and development to financing, in order to secure the EU’s technological leadership in the renewable energy field;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the Europe-wide energy- supply potential of RES has not yet been exhausted;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the growing share of the European energy mix accounted for by RES makes the expansion of the existing grid and IT infrastructure essential;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Maintains that the goal of closer energy cooperation, both within the EU and with neighbouring countries, has to go hand in hand with the necessary energy infrastructure development;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Maintains that the Member States, working with the Commission, must use energy and trade agreements with non- member countries to consolidate European policy goals for renewable energy development;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas, under the terms of the EU Treaties, the choice of an energy mix falls within the competence of the Member States, although improved cooperation and communication are nevertheless essential;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas more intensive development in the area of RES at European level will generate a high degree of added value in that it will both help the EU to achieve its climate and energy objectives and to improve its energy supply security and consolidate the EU’s leading role in this area and boost competitiveness and employment in the European Union;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas the current legal framework for the development of RES will expire in 2020, and whereas the dropping of binding national targets could deprive the RES sector of the support it needs to grow;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas binding targets for the use of RES to supply energy to final consumers have enhanced sustainable economic growth and consolidated the European Union’s technological leading role on the world market;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas a clear, long-term policy framework for RES is a prerequisite if we are to safeguard secure, cheap and stable supplies of energy and the European Union’s competitiveness and ability to innovate;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Welcomes the fact that in 2050 RES are set to account for the largest single share of the European Union's energy supply and are regarded as a ‘no-regret option’; adds that specific targets must be set for the period to 2050 in order to ensure that RES have a credible future in the EU;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Emphasises that secure, affordable and environmentally sound energy provision is indispensable for the competitiveness of European industry; emphasises, therefore, that the energy supply system needs to be overhauled andmade more flexible so that the share of RES increaseds in a manner that is cost-efficient manner and without prejudice toundermining supply security;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Notes that roughly half a million jobs have been created in the RES sector and that the more intensive development of RES over the period to 2030 could create a further 3 million jobs;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Emphasises that the use of RES fosters the diversification of energy supply, enhances Europe's competitiveness and supply security and contributes to the development of new industries and export markets;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Notes that the more intensive development of RES in the EU Member States is likely to lead to increased use of biomass, which will in turn necessitate the framing of detailed sustainability criteria for gaseous and solid biomass which take account, for example, of water protection, indirect land use and biodiversity considerations;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Emphasises that public acceptance is a key prerequisite for the further development of RES, so that it is essential that EU citizens should be given a major say at an early stage on matters concerning grid and plant construction;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is concerned that, so far, only some ofWelcomes the fact theat renewables on the energy market areare becoming increasingly economically competitive, although certai on other technologies are closing the gap with market prices energy market; agrees with the Commission that all available means must be used to bring the costs down and make RESfurther enhance the economically competitiveness of RES;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new) (after subheading "Renewable energy on the European internal energy market")
Paragraph 5 a (new) (after subheading "Renewable energy on the European internal energy market")
5a. Notes that grid infrastructure, grid management and market rules are tailored to the needs of fossil fuel-fired and nuclear power stations, with the result that newer technologies such as RES are placed at a competitive disadvantage;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that the internal market in gas and electricity is to be completed by 2014; welcomes the Commission’s intention to report in the near future on the state of progress towards completion of the internal energy markettake determined action to ensure that the third internal energy market package is implemented in all the EU Member States;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that the existence within the Union of, as a result of disparities between national markets and technologies, approximately 170 different schemes for promoting RES gives rise to considerable inefficiencies in cross-border electricity trading because it reinforces and indeed aggravates inequalities, thus working against completion ofcurrently coexist within the Union and represent a problem for the internal energy market;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that those who will benefit most from completion of the internal energy market are the consumers; supports the Commission’s view that competition needs to extend to renewables, in the long term and when they become economically viable, as well as other energy sources because it is the best stimulus to advances in innovation and price reductions;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes with concern that the cooperation mechanisms introduced by Directive 2009/28/EC have, to date, scarcely been used; points to the Commission’s findings indicating that better use of the existing scope for cooperation would bring considerable benefits; welcomes the Commission’s declared intention to draw up guidelines on cooperation within the EU which set out how the cooperation mechanisms should work in practice, outline the challenges involved and ways of tackling them and ensure that EU requirements are transposed into Member State law; calls on the Member States to make better use of the scope for cooperation and to develop communication between one another;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Emphasises that setting at an early stage an ambitious binding target for the share of final energy consumption to be accounted for by RES, applicable throughout the EU post-2020, would prompt the Member States to become more involved in the cooperation mechanisms;
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Emphasises that RESwhen they become economically viable RES technologies must be fully integrated into the European internal energy market in all the Member States without delay and that in the long term they must take on stabilising functions and tasks within the system that have previously been performed by conventional energy sources;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that because, in most cases, renewable sources feeding energy into the grid are decentralised, remotely located and weather-dependent, theyfeeding energy from renewable sources into the grid requires infrastructure different from that currently in place, the existing provision having been developed solely for conventional energy;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes that, in order to guarantee supply security, the development of RES with fluctuatingowing to fluctuations in the generation and feeding-in will necessitate reserves of conventional energy not previously availableof electricity from RES and a lack of suitable energy infrastructure, conventional energy reserves are still needed in order to guarantee supply security; recognises that the developmentprovision of reserve capacity entails substantial costs and that, to make the development or retention of conventional reserves more commercially attractive, it willwhich could be avoided if a energy infrastructure tailored to RES were to be made available; notes that there is an increasingly need to be promoted; rejects the concept of competition for subsidies and calls for the principles of the market economy to be applied to the design of the energy marketfor a stable policy framework to provide economic guarantees concerning the availability of these reserves; rejects the concept of competition for subsidies between energy sources and Member States, as this would be both inefficient and distort competition, and calls for an energy market design tailored to the Union’s long-term energy and climate policy objectives which makes it possible to integrate RES technologies into the internal energy market when they become economically viable;
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Emphasises that according a large share of the energy mix to RES entails major challenges for existing network infrastructure; notes that, in certain Member States, supply security is being severely affected by the increased feed-in from RES; is concerned by the finding by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO- E) that 80% of all the bottlenecks in European energy grids relate directly or indirectly to feed-in from RES, but that those challenges can be overcome; notes that in some Member States in which the increased feed-in from RES was not accompanied by the development of energy infrastructure supply security is being severely affected; emphasises that according to ENTSO a significant proportion of all the bottlenecks in European energy grids relate to feed-in from RES and stem in particular from a failure to develop energy infrastructure properly;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes that many of the best and most competitive locations for RES in the EU are at a considerable distance from the centres of energy consumption; notes that the optimum use of such locations is contingent on the development of transmission systemsall the various systems that form part of the energy infrastructure;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that the development of RES on a major scale, with their remote and weather-dependent feed-ininsufficient network capacity and storage facilities, and lack of cooperation between transmission system operators, can cause uncoordinated cross- border energy flows (loop flows) in other Member States –, thus making load reduction increasingly necessary in the interests of supply security – if it does not go hand-in-hand with the requisite; is concerned about the state of development of the grid; is concerned about the state of development of grid infrastructure in the Member Statenfrastructure in the Member States; calls on the EU Member States to press ahead as quickly as possible with the development of transmission and distribution systems and encourage greater cooperation between transmission system operators;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underscores the need for electricity storage solutions, both to facilitate the integration of RES into the energy supplyfullest possible integration, and the storage, of RES and to even out grid fluctuations; re-emphasises the urgent need for further research into electricity storage;
Amendment 300 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Is convinced that ICT will in future play a more important role in energy provision and in the management of RES; calls on the Commission, to bring forward without delay proposals, in line with the third internal energy market package, for the development, promotion and standardisation of smart grids and meters; emphasises that important factors in this regard include not only planning certainty on the providers’ side but also acceptance on the part of consumers, as well as data protection;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Emphasises that the further development of RES will entail permanent landscape change in Europe; points out that the only way to win public acceptance of RES is through transparent and coordinated planning, construction and licensing procedures, in which all the stakeholders are involved from the early stages;
Amendment 346 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Emphasises that the unlawful distortion of competition on the market is unacceptable, as it is only through fair competition that the EU can be assured in the long term of a reasonable level of prices for renewable energy technologies; calls on the Commission to bring ongoing competition proceedings to a conclusion as quickly as possible; emphasises that the best conditions for the growth of RES are offered by free global markets; underscores the need to do more to dismantle barriers to trade; calls on the Commission not to create any new obstacles to trade in finished products or components used in renewable energy technologies;
Amendment 360 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21 a. Stresses that the objective of greater cooperation on energy policy, both within the EU and with neighbouring countries, can only be achieved by developing the necessary energy infrastructure;
Amendment 361 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Stresses that, when concluding energy contracts with third countries, the Member States, in cooperation with the Commission, must ensure that they incorporate European policy objectives in terms of the development of renewable energies;
Amendment 394 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24 a. Asks the Commission to submit an industrial strategy for renewable energies which covers the whole range of research and development activities, including funding, to ensure the European Union’s leading position in the field of renewable energies is maintained;
Amendment 402 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Emphasises that the Member States currently use almost 170 different types of promotion mechanism; points out that this support has lead to healthy growth but that some of the promotion systems are very costly and that, in some cases, a considerable financial burden has been placed on consumers without their having had a choice in the matter; notes that, despite theproved to be insufficiently flexible to adjust to the decreasing cost of some technologies and, in some cases, created overcapacity, thereby placing a considerable financial burden on consumers; is pleased to observe that, thanks to subsidies, some RES have managed to become competitive vis-à-vis conventional methods of energy production only in certain areas, e.g. where the geographical conditions favour them;
Amendment 417 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Emphasises that, although increased generation and input of RES have helped to bring down wholesale prices, state influence has had the effect of making the price of electricity to consumers and industry in certain Member States relatively high; Ppoints out that, in 2010, 22% of households in the EU were worried about being able to meet their electricity bills and assumes that the situation in this regard has since worsened; stresses that energy poverty must be prevented and that industry’s ability to compete must not be affected; further points out that falling wholesale prices must be passed on to consumers;
Amendment 428 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the Renewables Directive — Directive 2009/28/EC — and the third internal energy market package are fully transposed into national law by the Member States so as to ensure that the necessary legal framework is in place to enable them to make further progress in the field of RES;
Amendment 429 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27b. Emphasises, on the basis of the impact assessment accompanying the Commission Communication and experience in connection with the climate and energy package, that an EU-wide mandatory target for the proportion of total energy consumption to be generated by RES should continue to be imposed after 2020 in order to ensure clarity and provide certainty for investors sufficiently far in advance and thereby encourage the further development of RES; insists that the EU-wide mandatory target for the proportion of total energy consumption to be generated by RES should be increased to at least 40-45% by 2030 and, furthermore, that this target must be met by mandatory RES development targets in the Member States;
Amendment 436 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Welcomes the Commission’s declared intention to draw up guidelines on good practice and the reform of national support arrangements; calls on the Commission to produce the guidelines as soon as possible but is convinced that these good-practice guidelines are only a first step and that efforts need to be directed at winding down themust be binding upon the Member States, although they should be allowed to make special support arrangements for the development and use of local and regional resources; stresses that existing national support systems, although they must not be retrospectively amended or cancelled, however, because that would send out disastrous signals to investors;
Amendment 447 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Emphasises that compliance with the guidelines will be a first step towards ensuring greater convergence between European support arrangements for RES with a view to ensuring a technically optimal, safe and affordable energy supply and enhancing the EU’s competitiveness and capacity to innovate;
Amendment 461 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Is convinced that only an EU-widegreater convergence between the various systems for promoting RES will offer the most cost-effective framework and a level playing-field in which their full potential can be realised; sees decisive advantages in a technology- neutral European market for renewables, in which producers will have to cover a pre-determined quota of their energy output from RES, and in which one of the ways of reaching that quota will be through the trading of certificates on a market established for that purpose; notes the evidence of experien in the long term; regards it as essential, in view of the multiplicity of support arrangements in place in the Member States, that, in order to ensure quotas are met, heavy fines must be imposed for failure to meet themo move the debate about a suitable EU-wide support system forward without delay;
Amendment 492 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Commission to bring forward, without delay, a proposal for a European support system in which a market for renewable-energy certificates will make for EU-wide competition among the variousafter conducting a wide-ranging consultation and comparative analysis of support systems in the EU, a proposal for a European support system as from 2020; notes here and now, however, that in the past feed-in systems have proved to be very flexible and promising and have fostered a wide range of technological advances;