9 Amendments of Sir Graham WATSON related to 2011/0302(COD)
Amendment 126 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The Commission has committed to mainstream climate change into Union spending programmes and to direct at least 20% of the Union budget to climate-related objectives. It is important to ensure that climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as risk prevention and management are promoted in the preparation, design and implementation of projects of common interest and that priority is therefore given to electricity interconnection investments. Infrastructure investments covered by this Regulation should contribute to promoting the transition to a low-carbon and climate- and disaster-resilient economy and society and minimise support for long-term high- carbon projects which lock in fossil fuels into our energy system for several decades and undermine the EU's 2020 and 2050 climate targets.
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) Major investments are needed to modernise and expand Europe's energy infrastructure and to interconnect networks across borders to meet the Union's energy and climate policy objectives of competitiveness, sustainability and security of supply in a cost-effective way. Long- distance electricity highways will help significantly to overcome the variability of renewable sources of electricity by sharing and distributing those resources throughout the Union. The estimated investment needs in energy infrastructure up to 2020 amount to EUR 1 trillion, of which ca. EUR 200 billion in electricity and gas transmission and storage infrastructures considered of European relevance. Among projects of European relevance, approximately EUR 100 billion of investments is at risk of not being delivered due to obstacles related to permit granting, regulation and financing.
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18 a (new)
Recital 18 a (new)
(18 a) Recalls that the European Parliament in its report on trade and climate change of 24 October 2007 (2007/2003(INI)) stressed the need to remove fossil fuel subsidies; reminds that the Europe 2020 strategy calls for the phasing out of environmentally harmful subsidies; highlights that the European Commission's Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe stresses the negative effects of fossil fuels and environmentally harmful subsidies and that the 2012 Annual Growth Survey of the European Semester called for the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies; considers therefore that it would be appropriate to limit the proportion of resources devoted to energy infrastructure in the Connecting Europe Facility that act as direct or indirect subsidies to fossil fuels;
Amendment 161 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18 a (new)
Recital 18 a (new)
(18 a) An earmarking of funds for electricity infrastructure of at least 75% of the total amount for energy within the Connecting Europe Facility should be applied in order to properly reflect the different energy infrastructure investment needs; in its report to the June 2011 Energy Council, the Commission estimated a total of EUR 200 billion of investment needs in energy infrastructure of European importance up to 2020, of which EUR 140 billion is needed for high voltage electricity transmission systems, and EUR 70 billion for gas transmission pipelines.
Amendment 212 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 42 a (new)
Recital 42 a (new)
Amendment 226 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 48
Recital 48
(48) Some of the infrastructure projects of Union interest might need to link with and pass through neighbourhood, pre-accession and other third countries such as in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, which has substantial solar energy that could be imported into the EU via long- distance electricity connections. The Connecting Europe Facility should offer simplified means of linking and financing these infrastructures, in order to ensure coherence between internal and external instruments of the Union budget.
Amendment 318 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b – point ii
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b – point ii
(ii) enhancing Union security of supply in both the electricity and gas sectors, to be measured by the evolution of system resilience and efficiency and security of system operations as well as number of projects enabling access to domestic renewable energy sources and allowing diversification of supply sources, supplying counterparts and routes;
Amendment 322 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b – point iii
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b – point iii
(iii) contributing to sustainable development and protection of the environment, notably by fostering the integration of energy from renewable sources into the transmission network and developing carbon dioxide networks, to be measured by the transmission of renewable energy from generation to major consumption centres and storage sites, the proportion of demand response enabled and the sum of CO2 emissions prevented by the construction of the projects which benefited from the Connecting Europe Facility.
Amendment 382 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Article 7 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 (new)
At least 75% of the total amount allocated to the energy sector within this Regulation shall be assigned to electricity infrastructure;