13th April 2002

Increased funding for Renewable Energy projects

Funding of €215 million for an EU energy action programme over the next four years has been proposed by the European Commission.

There is a big drive to support Renewable Energy projects, with a total of €86 million being made available across the community through the ALTENER programme. That's up on the €77 million that was available to assist renewable energy projects over the last four years.

That programme runs out at the end of December 2002. The SAVE programme which supports projects to improve energy efficiency has been allocated €66 million under this new programme that begins in 2003.

For projects to qualify for 50 per cent grant aid. They must offer something to the Union in terms of improved security of supply and help to combat climate change.

The EU are concerned that if no action is taken then the it will be importing over 70 per cent of its energy requirements by 2030. By then 95 per cent of Europe's oil needs would need to be imported.

The commission are concerned about the environmental, political and economic risk that this poses is too great.

This new "Intelligent Energy for Europe" programme is also aimed at reducing our carbon dioxide emissions and complying with the Kyoto commitments. In addition to the €215 million an additional provision of €50 million is envisaged when EU enlargement takes place

Wall and Downey on Food Safety Short list

A short list of 30 candidates for the management board of the new European Food Safety Authority has been drawn up by the European Commission. The list includes two Irish candidates, Dr Patrick Wall chief executive of the Irish Food Safety Authority and Dr Liam Downey, former head of Teagasc.

Fourteen candidates will be selected from this list by the European Council in consultation with the European parliament. The Commission will chose the 15th member.

Commissioner David Byrne is anxious that this new food safety authority can begin operating over the summer months and he expects that the final board of management will be selected by the council within the next three month. Each member will serve a four year term but they can be reappointed for a second term. An executive director of the authority must also be selected.

SSC satisfied with safety of meat

The European Scientific Steering Committee have stated that there is no reason to revise its opinion with regard to the safety of bovine and sheep muscles. The Committee discussed the recent US research that reported that the muscles of scrapie infected mice contained infectivity and produce prions. Up until this it was believed that the prion did not exists in muscle. The Committee concluded that the boundary conditions of the research do not justify its straight extrapolation to BSE in cattle conditions.

The SSC pointed out that all experiments with regard to the presence of TSE infectivity in muscles of cattle and sheep were all consistently negative

National beef aid for Luxembourg farmers

BSE compensation worth a total of €4.8 million has been approved for beef producers in Luxembourg. This national grant aid is assist farmers who sold cattle for slaughter and calves and cattle exported live between December 2000 and November 2001. The payment will be made directly to farmers and is worth €41 per adult animal eligible. It's expected that 1783 producers will benefit

Europe gets tough on environmental crime

MEPs have backed a proposal to make breeches of EU environmental law a criminal offence.

The European Parliament voted in favour of a draft directive for the protection of the environment through criminal law. This would allow member states to prosecute individuals or companies that break the law as a criminal offence, which obviously carries a more serious penalty.

In the parliament this week, the first reading of this new directive was voted through with a number of amendments included. These must now be considered by the council.