Res Communis

GMES a Priority for Swedish Council Presidency

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

Sweden has included GMES in its list of priorities for its Council Presidency:

Swedish government ministers this week outlined their Council Presidency priorities to a range of parliamentary committees – and fielded MEPs’ questions on most EU policy areas.

. . . Industry, research and energy

“We can address both the economic crisis and the climate challenge at the same time” by working for a shift towards “a European eco-efficient economy”, Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industry Maud Olofsson Parliament’s Industry Committee on Wednesday. Ms Olofsson said she hoped an agreement with Parliament on the energy efficiency package (energy performance of buildings directive, the energy labelling directive and the tyre labelling regulation) would be reached this autumn, so as “to send a clear message to the international climate negotiations” in December in Copenhagen.

“The Swedish Presidency will do its utmost to prevent further disruption of gas supplies to Europe”, Ms Olofsson added. To enable the EU to deal with any supply disruption in the future, the Presidency would start working on the Commission’s proposal for a security of natural gas supply regulation, she said. Moreover, the Swedish Presidency will also try to reach a first reading agreement with MEPs on the European Earth observation programme GMES, stressed Ms Olofsson. . . .