Investment projects in energy infrastructure

It takes coordinated investment in energy infrastructure to combat climate change.

A first step towards enhancing such coordination entailed stipulating that Member States should notify each other of their respective investments, providing the Commission with an overview and enabling it to monitor closely the situation, anticipate any potential problems and propose measures to boost synergies.

The Greens support the coordination of energy investments, since this is a precondition for the transition towards greater use of renewable energy.

We believe that this kind of information should be given for all energy forms, on an equal footing.

It should therefore also include the provision of transparent information on nuclear waste disposal installations.

The Greens succeeded in securing majority support for our demand that more democratic control of energy investments should give Parliament legally binding powers and oblige investors to notify the Commission five years in advance about their construction projects.

We also made sure that energy infrastructure investments will be in line with the EU targets on achieving 20% more energy efficiency by 2020 and ensuring that renewables attain a 20% share of energy consumed by the same date.

We failed to gain enough support to ensure greater transparency in major energy investments.

The EPP blocked our amendment for transparency with respect to nuclear projects and also rejected our plea for greater transparency as regards nuclear waste disposal installations, e.g. by including NGOs in the consultation process.

We also called for more public participation when preparing energy investment projects, but once again an industry-friendly alliance consisting of the EPP, ALDE and ECR blocked this step forward.