At the last Energy Council meeting during the Danish EU presidency Member States endorsed the compromise on the Energy Efficiency Directive reached with the European Parliament in negotiations Wednesday and confirmed by Coreper Thursday

The EU has set itself the target of improving energy efficiency by 20% by 2020 (from 1990 levels), but the European Commission estimates that the EU will achieve only half that improvement unless it takes specific measures.

On 14th June 2012, during the at Energy Council meeting held by the Danish EU presidency,  negotiators from the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council endorsed a  compromise on the Energy Efficiency Directive. After many rounds of negotiations, president of  the Council Martin Lidegaard, also Danish minister for Climate, Energy and Buildings, stated that  a target has been sealed which sets the reduction of Europe’s energy consumption by 17% by  2020.

The target, although smaller than the considered 20%, is nevertheless going in the short term to  create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Europe, and in the longer term, would contribute significantly to reaching the climate goals and decrease the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels.

In July 2012 the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) is expected to vote on the Energy Efficiency Directive and the vote in Parliament plenary is scheduled for September 2012.

For more information please contact:

Dagmar Kotová: dagmar.kotova@ceoc.com

Franziska Kassler: franziska.kassler@ceoc.com