Overview
Considering that the improvement in the rational use of energy resources is an essential contribution to the European Union's strategy to stabilize CO2 emissions at the 1990 level by the year 2000, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Council decision for a SAVE II multi-annual Programme to promote energy efficiency in the European Union.
The SAVE II Programme, proposed to last 5 years (1996-2000) with a budget of 150 MECU, aims to continue and expand the activities established under the SAVE I Programme (Council Decision 91/565/CEE), which came to an end on 31 December 1995, and also incorporate the Electricity End Use Programme (PACE) and the Regional and Urban Energy Management Action (PERU). All these actions have complementary goals and the SAVE II Programme provides a comprehensive framework for undertaking all these related activities.
Reinforced existing actions:
- labelling and standardisation actions in the area of energy equipment
- pilot actions to be carried out by appropriate networks
- targeted pilot actions
- dissemination of information
New actions:
- monitoring of energy efficiency progress at national and EU level
- specific actions in favour of greater cohesion between Member States in the field of the stablishment of policies aimed at efficient energy management
- specific action aimed at improving energy management at regional and urban level
- actions aimed at establishing energy efficiency as a criterion within existing EU strategic programmes
The actions proposed by SAVE II will complement the current and past Community efforts to develop new energy technologies. The current proposal is a considerable strengthening of the previous SAVE I Programme. This strengthening has been partly accomplished by extending the scope of its activities and partly by incorporating the Regional and Urban Energy Management action and the Electricity End-use Programme into the proposal.