A3-0203/93

Resolution on energy planning in the Community at regional level

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Bettini on energy planning in the Community (at regional level) (B3-1270/91),

-having regard to the communication from the Commission on energy planning in the European Community at regional level (COM(91)0053),

-having regard to Article 3b of the Treaty on European Union,

-having regard to Chapter 2, section 5(7) of the Green Paper on the Urban Environment, on urban energy management,

-having regard to the resolution adopted by the Environment/Energy Council on 16 September 1986 on the Community's energy objectives set for 1995 and convergence of the policies of Member States,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Energy, Research and Technology and the opinion of the Committee on Regional Policy, Regional Planning and Relations with Regional and Local Authorities (A3-0203/93),

A.whereas insufficient importance was attached to the energy sector at Maastricht; whereas, however, the Community is greatly in need of a legal basis that will enable it to manage its own energy potential as a strategic factor in economic and social cohesion,

B.whereas the objective of economic and social cohesion necessarily implies optimum development of the specific energy potential of regions which are lagging behind or in decline, which will require a policy of willingness to use renewable energy on the part of regional, national and Community authorities,

C.whereas the establishment of the trans-European networks promised in the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament 'Trans-European networks - for a Community action programme' (COM(90)0585) shows the importance of striking a balance between regional, national and Community powers and also between public and private activities so as to avoid the random overlapping of individual projects with no real common interest,

D.whereas current regional borders are not suited to a regional planning policy designed to coordinate areas which differ from each other but which are internally similar from an energy viewpoint; whereas therefore, energy borders should be redrawn regardless of existing regional ones,

E.mindful of the need to identify energy planning bodies in individual regions which are able both to ensure a continuous exchange of information with the Community and to act as intermediaries between the Community and the individual sub-units in each region,

F.whereas the major urban centres have their own special characteristics which distinguish them significantly from the rest of the region, whereas they therefore require specific planning policies,

1.Believes that a body on the lines of FEDARENE should be set up to collect and exchange regional information as a precondition for the efficient coordination of a regional energy policy; the Commission should also encourage this service;

2.Believes that energy planning at regional level, as advocated by the Commission, must be coordinated with Community support frameworks and measures taken under the Structural Funds, so that it becomes an integral part of the Community's flanking policies pursuant to Article 130r(2) and (3)of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community;

3.Believes that this programme of activities will make a valuable contribution to energy planning, particularly in the less developed, peripheral and island regions;

4.Believes that the territorial units on which energy planning is based should be the town and the region, on energy consumption, as well as on social, cultural and economic grounds and irrespective of administrative boundaries; therefore calls for a European map to be drawn identifying internally similar energy regions, regardless of the existing political and administrative geography, and an inventory to be made of local and regional potential energy resources which have not yet been developed, particularly in the field of renewable energy;

5.Believes that the concept of a priority energy intervention region must be modified, as the choice of parameters considered essential in the Commission text to define this concept may exclude areas which might be able to ensure rational, coordinated energy production and management (e.g. the highly industrialized regions, which are omitted in this document); all regions must be assessed in the light of their specific features: border, outlying, rural and island regions, urban areas, highly industrialized regions and underdeveloped regions;

6.Calls for the liberalization of the small-scale market, i.e. the production, distribution and sale of gas and electricity on lines with a voltage of less than 380 V within individual regions, restricting this market so far as environmental constraints and infrastructure usage are concerned;

7.Calls for an assessment of the energy impact of possible measures to improve the energy situation in cities, such as, for example, the decentralization of services and the possible equipment of urban centres with cable networks;

8.Calls on the Commission to evaluate, as a matter of urgency, the regional impact of measures such as the liberalization of the energy market and the application of a carbon tax in regions dependent on thermoelectric power;

9.Calls on the Commission to ensure that the Fourth Framework Research Programme provides for measures at regional level aimed at implementing energy planning schemes which use renewable energy sources integrated via gas transition (or coal gasification);

10.Believes that the Community must support the establishment of mixed - i.e. public and private - regional energy planning agencies (as well as metropolitan agencies, depending on the size and needs of urban centres); the goal will be to encourage energy savings and the rational utilization of resources by promoting the use of renewable energy sources;

11.Recalls that energy planning must be the coordinated outcome of steps taken by all those concerned: regional (and metropolitan) agencies, national authorities, the Commission, manufacturing industry, the financial sector, technical experts and the various public authorities;

12.Calls on the Commission and the national and regional authorities to ensure that measures in the energy sector envisaged under the Community support frameworks, which orient measures taken under the Structural Funds, comply with the goals and criteria of energy planning at regional level; believes it essential that the VALOREN programme be restored, since it has enabled positive results to be achieved at regional and local level;

13.Believes that the best energy planning model at regional level appears to be that of energy transition, under which traditional energy production gives way to the efficient exploitation of all local resources through the creation of an autonomous energy production system which can be linked to the distribution network;

14.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.