The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Michael Fallon)
In advance of the forthcoming Energy Council in Luxembourg on 7 June, I am writing to outline the agenda items to be discussed.
The presidency is planning to give a progress report on negotiations of the draft directive amending directives relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. The draft directive seeks to address indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions and encourage the transition to advanced biofuels. The presidency has put forward amended proposals but there are still divided views in the Council on them. The UK supports the introduction of ILUC factors into the amended directives and is concerned that the present proposals do not go far enough to address ILUC factors.
The Council is then expected to agree conclusions on the Commission communication on the internal energy market, which was published on 16 November 2012. We are content with the text of the conclusions, which sets out measures for strengthening and developing the internal energy market. We also expect the presidency to report on the outcome of the May European Council but no discussion is envisaged.
There will be a debate on the Commission’s recent communication on energy technologies, which outlines the need for better and cheaper low-carbon energy technologies to be developed faster to help reduce the costs of achieving the EU’s energy-related policy goals up to 2050. The UK welcomes the communication and supports most of the Commission’s messages.
The presidency and Commission will present a report on a number of international energy relations items, including EU-Russia, the International Energy Agency, the clean energy ministerial, the southern corridor, and an EU-Algeria memorandum of understanding on energy.
Finally, the Lithuanian delegation will present the programme for their presidency.