EREF Press Release
European Green Deal and PCI list – big gap between claim and reality
Brussels, 13 February 2020
“Fossil gas is not clean. Believing that energy from fossil gas is a necessary bridge within the transition period, is simply a misconception”, comments EREF President António Sá da Costa on yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament on the so-called fourth EU list of Projects of Common Interests (PCI), presented in October last year by the previous European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker.
Spending money on fossil gas projects included on this PCI list implies a lock-in of fossil gas in the European energy infrastructure beyond 2050. It is a potential double waste of money, highlights Dr. Dörte Fouquet, Director of EREF: “billions of Euros of EU taxpayers’ money are abused for stranded assets, and companies might claim compensation for switching them off latest by 2050 to meet the goal of the EU becoming the first net zero-carbon economy”.
EREF calls on Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson to stick to their words “to only provide funding for energy projects that support the EU’s climate neutrality objective”. And these gas projects do clearly not contribute to this end.
If decision-makers seriously wish to tackle climate change, the business-as-usual attitude needs to end now. All upcoming decisions in EU institutions must follow ONE priority: each and every compromise, each and every conflict of interest, each and every new set of laws must first and foremost address the criterion of sustainability!
Let’s see, if the European Commission stays firm to their commitment not to allow EU funding for fossil gas infrastructure. This would be an excellent moment to align promises and reality.
For more information on this matter, please contact
Dr. Dörte Fouquet Dirk Hendricks
EREF Director EREF Secretary General
doerte.fouquet@eref-europe.org dirk.hendricks@eref-europe.org