| Agenda
2000 The Security of Energy Supply Dinner debate
organised 19 September 2000, Brussels On
19 September in Brussels, the Foundation
organised a « back-to-work dinner-debate »
for its members and a few guests on the
subject of energy supply security. The
guest of honour was
François Lamoureux, Director General for
Energy and Transport at the European Commission,
accompanied by
Dominique Ristori, Director for general
affairs in the energy and transport directorate
general. The
recent and unexpected escalation in oil
prices made for an interesting and passionate
discussion. The escalation, linked to
the fall in the euro against the dollar,
has already pushed up inflation an extra
point and reduced our growth rate by 0.3%
for 2000 and by 0.5% for 2001 The cost
of energy imports has increased by 109%
over one year. The professions most directly
affected have reacted strongly and made
pressing demands. In the light of such
pressure, the Commission feels that it
would not be appropriate to cut taxes
and excise duties as this would merely
transfer the tax revenues of the Member
States to the OPEC countries. Furthermore,
a cut in taxation would run counter to
the goals of controlling demand and protecting
the environment. The current situation
underlines the European Union’s structural
weaknesses in the energy sphere :
to
which is added the need to make fresh
calls for energy savings. The
Commission will shortly be presenting
a "green paper" on energy supply
security which should launch a debate
between all the parties concerned on a
number of topics such as the importance
to be given to each energy source and
the need to reduce the consumption of
conventional types of energy. This
discussion could provide an opportunity
for generating a real demand policy that
would enable us to make reasonable choices
from a range of options. A
wide-ranging debate followed Mr. Lamoureux’
presentation, the main points of which
will be outlined at a later date. |
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