Commissioner Oettinger released today his communication on oil extraction and exploration.

For Corinne LEPAGE (Cap 21, France), spokesperson for the ALDE group on this question and President of the Intergroup on Seas and Coastal Areas, "the communication seemed to take measure of the problem. The Commission is making a realistic assessment of the situation in recognising that the legislation on offshore drilling is currently incomplete, heterogeneous and too fragmented."

Nevertheless Corinne Lepage is worried "about the ambiguity on the question of the moratorium. The Commissioner explicitly mentioned a moratorium during his press conference, but the word does not appear anymore in the communication. The text states that the Commission calls upon the Member States to suspend the granting of licences for new installations until safety regimes have been assessed, which is different from what the commissioner proposed until now."

"On the rest of the proposal I hope that the announced measures will soon be presented and that the Parliament will be responsible: In the face of the expected resistance in the Council of Ministers the Parliament must be the ally of the Commission in favour of the most rigorous legislation possible."

The Commission's commitment proposing to have legislation before summer 2011 aiming to define at the European level the requirements for the granting of hydrocarbon exploration and production licences goes in the right direction. Equally, the extension of the environmental responsibility directive to all European waters and the reinforcement of response capacities of the EU in case of an accident are priority measures.

For further information, please contact:

Neil Corlett: + 32-2-284 20 77 or + 32-478-78 22 84

e-mail: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu

Yannick Laude: +32-2-284 31 69 or + 32-495-22 78 37

Please also visit: http://www.adle.eu