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EUROPEAN COMMISSION SENDS REASONED OPINIONS TO FOUR MEMBER STATES

Date

03 Dec 2009

Sections

Competition
Energy

On 20 November the Commission sent a Reasoned Opinion to Portugal, Slovakia, Finland

and the United Kingdom for failure to communicate the full transposition of the 2004

Cogeneration Directive. On the eve of the Copenhagen summit COGEN Europe presses the

Commission to step up pressure on Member States to take action on the immediate gains in

CO2 reduction possible from cogeneration.

The four Member States now have two months to take the necessary measures to comply

with the Reasoned Opinion. After that, the Commission can decide to bring the case before

the European Court of Justice. "It is very disappointing that four Member States have

received final warnings and COGEN Europe wants to see the Commission starting to take

even tougher action”, Fiona Riddoch, Managing Director COGEN Europe says.

“Cogeneration hugely improves the fuel efficiency and lowers CO2 emissions in the power

sector. Europe should be taking a strong line on Energy Efficiency implementation and

championing technology solutions like cogeneration at Copenhagen".

Member States had until 21 February 2006 to transpose the rules of the Cogeneration

Directive into national legislation. The Reasoned Opinion is the second step in the

infringement procedure. COGEN Europe points to the overall slow and problematic

transposition process of Directive 2004/8/EC on the promotion of cogeneration based on a

useful heat demand in the internal energy market and amending Directive 92/42/EEC as

jeopardising Europe’s critical short term actions on Climate Change.

COGEN Europe is currently monitoring the implementation of the Directive into national

legislation under the CODE project. CODE (Cogeneration Observatory and Dissemination

Europe) is an EU wide independent assessment of the progress of the Directive and

preliminary results show an overall delay in reporting by the Member States

COGEN Europe and the IEA will be presenting on cogeneration at the Bright Green Event in

Copenhagen on the 12th and 13th of December (GE stand) and will draw attention to the still

untapped cogeneration potential in Europe. Both organisations will be advocating more rapid

and focused action by the Commission and Member States on growing the cogeneration

sector in Europe

The European association for the promotion of cogeneration

Avenue des Arts 3-4-5 · B-1210 Brussels · Belgium

Tel: +32 2 772 82 90 · Fax: +32 2 772 50 44 · Email: info@cogeneurope.eu · Website: www.cogeneurope.eu

For more information please contact:

Dr Fiona Riddoch, Managing Director

Tel: +32 2 772 8290

Fax: + 32 2 772 5044

Email: fiona.riddoch@cogeneurope.eu

Stefan Craenen, Communication Manager

Tel: +32 2 772 8290

Fax: + 32 2 772 5044

Email: stefan.craenen@cogeneurope.eu