Introduction

This section aims at giving an overview of the EU bioenergy-related policy.

Please see the European Commission's 'Energy for a Changing World' website, which contains all up-to-date information on the EU's climate change and energy policies. Visit also the European Commission's Energy Portal at www.energy.eu. It contains information on energy news in the EU27 as well as energy events, conferences and important statistics for member states.

Recent EU Policies

2005-2006
The Green Paper of March 2006 - "A European Strategy for
Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy", brought increased discussion on energy -fossil and renewable.  It focused on six main areas: competitiveness and the internal energy market, diversification of the energy mix, solidarity (to prevent supply crises), sustainable development, innovation and technology and external policy (for energy supply).

In December 2005, the Commission released the Biomass Action Plan (BAP).  It's role was to map out the potential for biomass in the EU renewable energy mixture and to present guidelines on how to harness this energy in a sustainable manner.

Following on from the BAP was renewable energy and are covered by this directive: electricity, hthe EU Strategy for Biofuels released in February 2006 which contained further specification following on from the  released in December 2005.  The report is based upon a threefold objective: further promotion of biofuels in the EU and in developing countries, preparation for the large-scale use of biofuels, and heightened cooperation with developing countries in the sustainable production of biofuels.

For further information on bioenergy policy documents, please visit our newpolicy documents page, where you will find a list of  bioenergy related documents from the EU Institutions, outlined on this page, as well as from other international organisations.

2007
The Renewable Energy Roadmap (Jan, 2007) represented a new policy orientation of the European Commission to move renewable energies closer to the top of the EU's agenda.  In March 2007, EU leader's endorsed the Commission's roadmap on renewable energy and signed up to the energy plan of 20% target for renewables in the EU's overall energy mix by 2020 (current target is 12% for 2010) and an obligation to have 10% biofuels in the EU transport fuel mix by 2020 (current target 5.75%) .

2008
The Commission published the legislative proposals designed to support the recent roadmap outlined above in its energy and climate package on the 23 January 2008.

The energy package includes a proposal for a directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, such as wind, photovoltaic, solar, biomass, and geothermal. The proposal contains binding national renewable energy targets for each Member State aimed to achieve the 20% the share of renewables in EU energy consumption by 2020. Three sectors are implicated by the directive electricity, heating and cooling, and transport. Member States can choose the mix that best suits their resources and needs to achieve their own national targets.