Statement by Renate Holznagel

Page 1:Statementby the 1° Vice President of theParlament of Meckienburg-VorpommemRenate Holznagelpresented at the16" Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference“Sustainable Development in the Baltic Sea Region —Social Welfare, Maritime Policy, Energy Security”First Session“Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region,including Energy !ssues”27 August 2007German BundestagBerlinEmbargoed untii the beginning of the statementCheck against delivery!Page 2:Ladies and gentlemen,Today, German policymakers in Berlin are much more sensitive to the interests of thecoastal states in the Baltic Sea Region. The previous speakers have already pointed outthat the energy issue is one of the key political challenges of our time, not least inconnection with the climate problem. | am very pleased therefore that the Baltic SeaParliamentary Conference is dealing intensively with this topic.For this reason, the parliaments of Mecklenburg-Vorpommermn and Schleswig-Holsteinaiong with the parliaments of the Polish provinces of Western Pomerania and Pomerania,as weil as the regional Duma of Kaliningrad and the parliament of the Skane regiondiscussed “Environmentally Sound and Competitive Energy Supply” this year in Gdynia atthe meeting of the parliamentary network “Southern Baltic Sea Parliamentary Forum’.We agreed that the European Council's and the European Commission's goal andapproach of transforming Europe into an economy with high energy efficiency and lowgreenhouse gas emissions should lead to concrete measures as quickly as possible. Wetherefore felt that it was necessary to devetop common positions in this policy field, basedon relevant analyses. We intend to introduce these positions during the discussion processat regional, national and international level.And that is exactly the approach that we are pursuing here at the Baltic Sea ParliamentaryConference. This means that a working group will develop concrete proposals designed tostrengthen co-operation on energy issues and to support our general energy policyobjectives. These proposals will then be discussed ai the next conference in Visby. Thepreparation of the Conference by working groups has aiready proven to be very useful, forinstance, in connection with maritine safety and eutrophication.Ladies and gentlemen,Key fields of action have been defined in the European Commission's Green Paperentitled “A European strategy for sustainable, competitive and secure energy”. In addition,a target defined by the Council and the Commission is to reduce greenhouse gasemissions by at least 20 per cent, relative to the year 1990. This is a challenging taskwhich, however, we have to tackle promptly. There is no alternative. Time is running out!Page 3:Another target is to increase the share of renewabie energy sources in Europes totalenergy consumption to 20 per cent by the year 2020. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern hasalready gained extensive experience In our state, a share of 20 per cent no longer posesan obstacle’ however, we must realise that there are not oniy great opportunities but alsotimitsWe will also have to achieve additional significant improvements in generation efficiencyand in environmentally sound technologies for the use of fossil fuels. Furthermore, weshould push for a comprehensive and rapid implementation of the measures contained inthe Council’s conclusions on the Commission's Biomass Action Plan, and we should pressfor an active use of EU funding programmes in and between the regions involved. tn thiscontext, it is necessary to establish a network for the use of biomass as an energy source.However, it goes without saying that we must also discuss the energy mix, as weli as thecosts and faxes.This is another field, ladies and gentlemen, in which the Baltic Sea region could bedeveloped into a model region for “renewable energy sources” in Europe, against thebackground of its natural resources and its potential in research and development. Let uswork together to achieve this goal.We cannot afford to lose any more time. Time is running out if we want to achieve theambitious targets and objectives we share.Thank you very much for your aftention.Page 4:Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern1 Vice PresidentRenate HoiznagelSchloss SchwerinLennéstrasse 119053 Schwerin (GERMANY)Phone: +49-385-525.2213Fax: +49-385-525.2255Email: renate.holznagel@landtag-mv.deWeb: www. landtag-mv.de