The green paper 'towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply'

The Green Paper, 'Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply' was adopted by the European Commission on the 20. of November, 2000 (COM(2000)769 final). At this occasion, the Commission launched a public debate on this strategic document. On the 21. of June 2001, a Public Hearing on Security of energy supply in Europe, on the basis of the Green Paper, was organised by the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy of the European Parliament. Bernard Laponche was among the six experts participating to the Hearing and presented the following paper, prepared with Kenya Tillerson. This presentation is organised in three chapters: I - Comments on the Green Paper; II - Energy efficiency potentials; III - Conclusions and Recommendations. Chapter I shows that under the heading of the security of supply, the Green paper elaborates and proposes a global energy strategy taking into account environmental and internal market issues and constraints. This leads to recommendations for a common energy policy for Europe based, as first priority, on a demand policy, i.e. energy efficiency on the demand side. If the necessity of such a policy is clearly stated, the Green paper remains weak on the quantitative objectives, due to the lack of contrasted energy forecast scenarios, as well as on the means of a vigorous energy efficiency policy at European Level. The issue of energy efficiency potentials at European Union level is examined in Chapter II, in the light of the poor information which can be extracted from the energy scenarios presented by the European Commission in various publications. A comparison of energy consumption indicators in France and the European Union leads to a rough estimate of a potential for energy demand efficiency by 2020 of the order of 280 Mtoe on final energy consumption, for the European Union. Chapter III underlines the merits of the Green Paper which are a clear-sighted analysis and a well defined main recommendation. It dwells on the need for additional work on contrasted scenarios for energy forecast, the setting-up of quantitative energy efficiency objectives and building up of a comprehensive European energy efficiency policy. It advocates a co-operation policy on energy with developing countries, an issue which is dramatically forgotten in the Green Paper. (authors)