PAST EVENTS

SERO held an Industry Workshop questioning "Which political barriers exist and how could they be fixed". It was a workshop on political barriers against renewable energy and energy efficiency with the industry. The seminar began with speaches by Johan Wullt (European Commission in Sweden), Dirk Hendricks from EREF, Göran Bryntse and Sven Bernesson: We had two panel debates: one on wind energy, solar energy and hydro energy and water energy and one on bioenergy and biofuels. Each panel included two politicians: Peter Eriksson (MEP) the Greens and Richard Nordin (MP), the Centre Party.

In the discussion the following issues emerged, amongst others:

• EU state aid rules on overcompensation forces a heavier taxation of FAME (esterified vegetable and animal oils) and maybe even E85. The reason for this is that these fuels received a tax exemption which led to their price over a period were lower than for the corresponding fossil fuels. That is not allowed according EU state aid rules on overcompensation.
• Proposals regarding ILUC discuss that in the EU it should not be allowed to use agricultural land to produce biofuels. This proposal must be stopped. Within the EU there are 50 million hectares of unused arable land.
• For wind energy there are many barriers. It would be good if the EU countries could produce maps where areas that are unsuitable for wind power are clearly marked.