EUFORES Press Release, April 7th, 2005

Mechtild Rothe, Member of the European Parliament and President of EUFORES, welcomed yesterday evening Dr. Hermann Scheer, Winner of the Alternative Nobel Price, Member of the German Parliament and President of EUROSOLAR, to the European Parliament as guest speaker on “The future of renewable energy policies”.

In his speech before Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission, associations and industry, Dr. Hermann Scheer stressed the global importance of renewable energy for Europe:

“There will be no security of supply in Europe in the mid-term without the further deployment of renewable energy. It is clear that the price for conventional energy sources has been increasing and will do so further, but the price for renewable energy will decrease due to the development of technologies and economies of scale. We as decision makers have to provide a policy benefiting decentralized renewable energy available everywhere. Otherwise, we will face tremendous conflict for the geographically fixed, finite, steadily decreasing energy resources.”

According to the Green Paper on energy security from the European Commission the energy dependency of the European Union on energy imports from non-EU countries will increase up to 70% by 2030, if nothing is done.

Mechtild Rothe stressed the fruitful cooperation across different political parties within the European Parliament and hoped it would continue. “In the future, new efforts in the field of renewable Heating and Cooling are essential alongside efforts in renewable electricity. This is not only important for achieving the White Paper target from 1997 of 12% of renewables in gross inland energy consumption by 2010, but also because heating applications account for the highest proportion of final energy consumption in Europe.” 50% of the final energy consumption in Europe is used for the heating needs of buildings, for domestic hot water production and for heating in industrial processes.

“Furthermore, the research budget for renewables in the upcoming FP-7 research program of the European Union must be significantly increased. Instead of paying lip-service it is now time to match words with action”, Mechtild Rothe said.

Both criticized the funding for research projects in renewable energy and energy efficiency of the European Union. The Commission has revealed that funding dropped from an average of 138 million EUR per year in FP-5 (1999-2002) to 108 million EUR1 per year so far in FP-6 (2003-2006). In comparison, the European Commission proposes to increase the nuclear research budget under the Euratom R&D framework programme from 1352 million EUR in the period 2002-2006, to 3103 EUR million in the period 2007-2011.

The event was held in the spirit of continuing the strong cooperation between the European Parliament and national parliaments.

The event was hosted by EUFORES, the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources. Established in 1995, EUFORES is an Inter-Parliamentary discussion forum of Members of national Parliaments and the European Parliament keen to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.