Commission initiative to encourage intelligent energy use in Europe

Brussels, 15 March 2002

A new European Commission initiative to help improve the security of Europe's energy supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be launched with a live Internet discussion on 20 March.

The ManagEnergy project, supported by the Energy and Transport DG, aims to provide European support for local energy and transport activities. It hopes to boost progress towards the EU goal of generating 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 by increasing energy efficiency in the domestic, industrial and transport sectors and encouraging greater use of renewable energy sources.

The project will bring together energy agencies and other regional and local level organisations to promote good practice and improve communication and the sharing of knowledge in areas such as energy use in buildings and industry, renewable energy and clean urban transport. It will involve organisations in both Member and Candidate EU States.

A series of workshops, conferences and training events, all of which will be broadcast live on the Internet, are planned across Europe.

A ManagEnergy web site will be launched on the same day as the project. It will provide information on good practice, events, relevant European and national legislation, projects and scientific and technological reports.

Ismo Gronroos Saikkala, project manager for ManagEnergy, said the initiative will 'shorten the time lag from invention to use for new energy technologies' and help the Community to use new research and technology in the most efficient way possible through the sharing of knowledge and expertise.

The project, which will initially last for 3 years, was launched as a result of the first European Conference of all local and regional energy management agencies, held in November 2001.

Energy agencies are local level agencies which provide information to consumers on energy matters and help local authorities to formulate their energy policies.

The live Internet discussion will take place from 11.00 to 13.00 CET on 20 March.

For further information on the ManagEnergy project or the live Internet discussion, please contact:

E-mail: info@managenergy.net

The ManagEnergy website will be available at the following web address from 20 March:

http://www.managenergy.net

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001