Brussels: Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament slammed the lack of vision and constructive ideas for smarter energy consumption in the EU from the "conservative-dominated Council".
Following the first discussion between the Commission, Council and Parliament on the Energy Efficiency Directive the S&D negotiator, Danish Euro MP Britta Thomsen, said, "It seems the Council is stuck in austerity mode and is neither capable nor willing to recognise that we need jobs and growth to pull Europe out of the economic crisis. If we meet the 20% reduction target, the EU will save 400 billion euros alone through savings on energy imports from third countries, which is enough to pay for the annual salary of more than 10 million European workers. In addition, the ambitious measures required in order to meet this target would create up to 2 million jobs."
"At present, under a business as usual scenario, the Member States will fail to meet even half of the 20% target in 2020, and yet the Council is telling the Parliament that it is only prepared to use the directive to contribute a 'significant' amount towards reaching the 20% target, but not to fill the gap itself. This is completely unacceptable and short-sighted," Thomsen noted.
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