EU Parliament and Commission mobilised for clean energy financing
On 7th November, the European Parliament and the European Commission organised a high-level conference on clean energy financing. The conference was attended by hundreds of participants and tackled all aspects of clean energy: energy efficiency, energy infrastructure and renewables.
One of the messages of the day was that climate action can go hand in hand with economic growth. Also, the basic EU legal framework is already in place, with the Clean Energy Package to be adopted soon. But the financial challenge is crucial. According to the Commission’s estimates, €379 billion per year in investment is needed by 2030 for energy efficiency, the production of renewables and infrastructure. This requires the joint management of public and private financing, the Commission says, pointing out that there will be some critical decisions in the perspective of the EU multi-annual financial framework post-2020.
In contrast, Jerry Brown, Governor of California and guest of honour at the conference, stressed that investment is one thing, but it is more important is to have a long-term vision.
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Up to €800 million to roll out alternative fuel infrastructure
On 8th November, the European Commission presented its second “mobility package” of the year, focused on climate change adaptation.
As part of this package, the European Commission proposes to allocate up to €800 million to help Member States roll out alternative fuel infrastructure on their territory. The Commission points out that widescale use of clean vehicles will only become a reality in the event of a huge expansion in appropriate recharging infrastructure in the Union. Although this rollout has made significant progress over recent years, the Commission would like to speed it up as part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) in urban and suburban areas.
The Commission has adopted an energy neutral approach. It will initially release €350 million in addition to what has already been paid out, through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), by spring 2018. This is expected to generate €1.9 billion in additional investment. The Commission will also provide technical expertise and logistical support to the public authorities to help make this fuel infrastructure a reality.
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Co-operation agreement signed by FIEC, EFBWW and AEIP
On 7/11/2017 the EU sectoral Social Partners for the construction industry, FIEC and the EFBWW, signed a cooperation agreement with the AEIP, the European association of paritarian funds. The aims of this agreement are :
- Strengthening industrial relations in the construction industry at EU level;
- Developing, implementing and coordinating a long term action plan to strengthen industrial relations in Central and Eastern European Countries;
- Maintaining and updating the joint website on the Paritarian Funds in the construction industry(www.paritarian-funds-
construction.eu); - Better co-ordination of joint research on the European social dimension of the construction industry.
The implementation of the agreement will be done and monitored by the Secretariats of the three signatory organisations, who will report regularly to their internal respective structures.
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