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EU leaders endorse recovery package with low carbon energy projects

Foto: Wikimedia Commons

Publish date: March 19, 2009

Written by: Eivind Hoff

BRUSSELS – EU heads of state and government have agreed today an increase of €2.5billion in EU spending on low-carbon projects including CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and renewables.

Bellona welcomes the consensus reached amongst EU leaders as a sign that climate change has become a top priority for the Union also in its budgetary priorities.

In total, €5billion will be reallocated from EU budget chapters that are under-spent, in particular the EU’s common agricultural policy, to infrastructure projects that are European political priorities and that will create new jobs.

Half of the €5bn will be made available for low-carbon projects: €1.050 million for seven CCS projects, €910 million for electricity interconnectors (helping the integration of renewable energy into the grid) and €565 million for offshore wind projects in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

The other half will be spent on broadband infrastructure and gas interconnectors.

Although the EU recovery package still has to be approved by the European Parliament, which is due to vote on the package on May 5th, it will be hard to undo today’s deal. It follows a first proposal by the European Commission in November. Click here for a background article, here for information from the Council of Europe, and here for more details reported by the main European affairs newsweekly, the European Voice.