PES proposes Oil Forum for the EU

19 December 2007

Breaking Europe’s dependence on oil should be the focus of an ‘Oil Forum’ bringing together politicians, industry, scientists and EU institutions say PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Swedish Social Democratic Party Leader Mona Sahlin.

The Forum would draw up a programme to reduce Europe’s dependence on oil – identifying where EU-regulations come into conflict with efforts to end the dependence on oil, and propose new policies at the EU level.

“Oil, together with other fossil fuels, contributes up to 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions” said Mona Sahlin. “To tackle climate change we must break our dependence on oil.”

“The rising cost of oil poses a major threat to our economies” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen “and has the potential to cause instability and conflict.”

The proposal by Sahlin and Rasmussen follows the successful experience of the ‘Oil Independence Commission’ set up in Sweden by Prime Minister Göran Persson and which produced a report in June 2006 on ‘Making Sweden an oil free society’.

In a letter to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Rasmussen and Sahlin suggest the Forum should consist of representatives of business and industry, agricultural and environmental organizations, the scientific community, EU Member States, the European Commission and trade unions. “By involving every major interest in the work of the European Oil Forum we can find a broad consensus as to what needs to be done”.

Read the letter to President Barroso