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Brussels — Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me begin by extending a very warm welcome to you all. I’m delighted to see so many of you here at this meeting of the Sustainable Energy for All Access Committee.
Our task today is an important one: to build on the crucial recommendations put forward in Vienna at the last Access Committee meeting.
In summary these conclusions stressed the need for a comprehensive approach to ending energy poverty, combining sector reforms to ensure an investment friendly environment, and, at the same time, ensuring that the necessary support is in place to ensure that these reforms catalyse real change and growth.
They also stressed the need to promote the private and commercial sector; we all recognise that national budgets and aid will never meet the huge needs for investment to bring modern energy services to over a billion people.
I’m sure that today’s discussion will be as fruitful as ever and will see us work out ways of carrying these recommendations forward.
The EU and SE4All
The comprehensive and inclusive approach I just mentioned forms the foundation of the European Union’s action in the field of energy.
It has fed into our energy policy. This is especially true of the well-balanced portfolio that we have devised in response to the ambitious goal that President Barroso has set us. It’s a goal that will see us help developing countries provide access to sustainable energy services for 500 million people by 2030.
And we have put our money where our mouth is. We have set aside more than 3 billion euro to support sustainable energy activities in our partner countries at regional level and in individual partner countries. I’m delighted to report that 30 partner countries have chosen energy as a focal sector in their bilateral cooperation with the EU for the period 2014-2020.
When it comes to securing that all-important enabling environment for investments, we will pay particular attention to three key framework conditions.
These are firstly, strong political ownership. Without this, the necessary reforms to promote growth and investment will never flourish. I am very happy to report that in our discussions with our partner countries, and no doubt inspired by the Energy For All initiative, I see this strong political ownership very much present.
Just last week, in the margins of the UN Climate Summit in New York, the EU signed joint declarations with European and African countries that have decided to work together to defeat energy poverty and bring people sustainable energy services.
These declarations will boost our cooperation with the 5 signatory partner countries – Ivory Coast, Liberia, Rwanda, Togo and Cape Verde – and with co-signing EU Member States and donors. In the process, we will be delivering political ownership.
Secondly, we need to ensure that the necessary implementation capacity is in place to carry forward the reforms. This includes technical and financial knowledge. There is considerable work ahead of us to achieve this, but all the SE4All partners recognise its importance, and are committed to deliver.
The EU for example, has established a 80 million Euro Technical Assistance Facility to provide assistance in boosting implementation capacity and creating an enabling environment for transparency, policy reforms, cost recovery and reinvestment. This Facility, already operational in Sub-Saharan Africa, will soon be rolled out further to benefit partner countries in other regions.
