(17/01/06) Een Groene analyse van de recente gascrisis

• 2006-01-17

De Europese Groene fractie waardeert de houding en het handelen van de EU in het gasconflict tussen Rusland en Oekraïne. Velen grepen deze crisis jammer genoeg aan om een sfeer van angst te creëren rond de Europese energievoorziening. Onterecht. Rusland is zo afhankelijk van de inkomsten voor zijn gas, als de Europese Unie dat is voor de voorziening ervan. De EU van zijn kant moet van energiebesparing en energie-efficiëntie een topprioriteit maken. Ook de gasvoorziening verdient extra aandacht. Claude Turmes, voor de Europese Groenen lid van de EP-commissie Energie, licht toe.

EU Gas Supplies

Further Steps Must Be Taken To Guarantee Gas Supplies

The EU Institutions responded positively to the New Year gas price conflict by quickly helping to create a united EU position, rapidly convening of the relevant Gas Coordination group and gently putting political and economic pressure on both parties to find a quick solution. By taking a neutral position and backing either side, the EU Institutions successfully helped to resolve the problem.

Despite the rapid resolution to the conflict and the fact that the co-ordination group clearly showed that there were only minor impacts on the European gas supply, certain commentators and political groups have chosen to use this incident to unjustifiably heighten security of supply fears.

“The populist arguments from certain right wing politicians are unjustified and counter productive. Russia has always delivered gas and is probably as dependent on the income from European gas sales as Europe is dependent on Russian gas,” said Claude Turmes (Luxembourg), Member of the Parliament's Energy Committee.

"Anyone who knows about the interdependencies and the price-setting mechanism in the oil and gas market should appreciate these valuable resources. Energy saving and energy efficiency have thus to become top priorities of EU energy policies."

While the Green/EFA group in the European Parliament welcomes the resolution of the situation and the positive role of the European Commission, action must be taken to ensure natural gas supplies, in particular by:

The EU Member State most affected by the situation was Hungary. However, its problems were caused by a failure to rapidly deploy gas reserves. This has highlighted the need for a new reflection on public service obligations and access to gas storage.
Geographical diversification is essential. The development of additional gas infrastructure can alleviate further security of supply concerns. Already investments are taking place in a number of Member States, through the greater use of Liquid Natural Gas, the construction of additional storage facilities and the development of new pipeline routes. Some of these are being developed with EU finances.
Natural gas is predominantly used in the building sector for heating. A requirement for higher energy efficiency standards for buildings will reduce gas consumption considerably, as 50% savings are technically possible. While the greater use of combined heat and power for the 75% of the EU population that lives in cities can bring further energy savings. These savings would enable gas to continue to be used for electricity generation and thus reduce the environmental impact of the power sector.
The greater use of biomass and biogas, both domestically produced and without the environmental problems of natural gas, can rapidly bring further security of supply improvements and economic savings.

Background document on the Russian-Ukranian gas crisis