EUFORES 16th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

7 & 8 October 2016, Parliament of Denmark, Copenhagen

"Security and growth potentials in the Energy Union"

The 16th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting (IPM16) was organised in close cooperation with the Parliament of Denmark and was attended by 160 participants from 23 EU Member States. About a half of participants came from national parliaments and the European Parliament, active in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Other participants of this 'upon invitation only' based conference included representatives from national ministries, the European Commission, embassies and selected scientific and industry representatives.

After the conference was opened by Martin Lidegaard, MP Denmark and Host of IPM16, EUFORES Vice-President Jeppe Kofod, MEP, welcomed participants to the 16th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting. In his optimistic welcome speech, Kofod stressed that by working together and pooling our resources and infrastructure we can bring prices down and supply up. This way we can ensure sustainable economic growth, millions of European jobs, lower energy prices and increased supply security.

According to Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President for Energy Union of the European Commission, the EU has a first mover advantage as we are the only major economy to develop legal frameworks and reduce GHG emissions. There are many countries around the world which have to jump over the fossil phase in their economies and Europe has the technology to offer. Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen welcomed participants to the energy capital of the world. Minister Jensen related the security question to energy as our security is another reason why we need more independent energy system in the EU. He also mentioned that Denmark - as the 1st country in the world - wants to become independent of fossil fuels by 2050. Rainer Baake, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, reiterated that the energy transition should be seen as an economic opportunity. According to Baake our key problem is how we can exit fossil fuels in Europe. Corina Popescu, Secretary of State at the Romanian Ministry of Energy, presented the challenges related to the energy transition in Romania, namely investments needed in multiple sectors, increasing prices and the issue of affordability and high energy poverty. Romania intends to become an important player in the South Eastern region through optimal use of all its energy resources as well as the development of interconnection capacities both for electricity and gas. EUFORES President Claude Turmes, MEP, outlined several areas where immediate action is needed: repairing failed markets (e.g. ETS), slowing down climate change and creating jobs, ambitious and forward-looking new package on energy policies and regional cooperation.

2016 and 2017 will be most intense years of European policy making when it comes to renewable energy and energy efficiency legislation. The EU Energy Union is at the core of this legislative endeavour. Members of parliament will play a key role in defining and implementing this new package of legislations.

The core topics of the parliamentary meeting were:

  • EU Energy Union
  • International security and the role of the Energy Union
  • The new Renewable Energy Directive
  • The new power market design
  • The review of energy efficiency related Directives (Energy Efficiency Directive, Labelling Directive, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive etc.)
  • The Northern Seas: The power house of Europe
  • The role of Renewables for Heating and Cooling
  • Renewables and efficiency in the transport sector
  • Energy efficiency and renewables in the hands of the citizens

Agenda

Please download the IPM16 Copenhagen Agenda here:

 

Speaker presentations

Jeppe Kofod, MEP and EUFORES Vice-President

Phil Summerton, Managing Director, Cambridge Econometrics

Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President for Energy Union, European Commission 

Corina Popescu, Secretary of State, Ministry of Energy of Romania

Matthias Buck, Head of EU Energy Policy, Agora Energiewende

Tom Eischen, General Director Energy, Ministry of Economy, Luxembourg

Michael Hannibal, Head of Siemens Windpower Offshore

Martin Neubert, Chief Strategy Officer for Wind Power, DONG Energy Wind Power

Ines Kolmsee, CTO, EWE

Fanny-Pomme Langue, Senior Policy Advisor, AEBIOM - European Biomass Association

Mark Lister, Acting Head of Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, SEforALL

Daniel Becker, Director, Ecofys

Paul Hodson, Head of Unit "Energy Efficiency", DG Energy, European Commission

Michael K. Rasmussen, Senior VP Brand, Velux

Claus Bugge Garn, Vice-President, Rockwool

Marion Santini, Senior Consultant, The Coalition for Energy Savings

 

IPM16 Feedback questionnaire

We would appreciate if you took the time to give us a short feedback and fill in the feedback questionnaire in order to help us improve our events.

 

IPM16 Pictures

A larger selection of pictures from both conference days can be found on here

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Danish Parliament

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