Evropská komise - DG Trade: Mandelson: Politika EU v oblasti biopaliv musí směřovat k "nejzelenějším" výsledkům

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said that EU biofuel policy should be determined by global environmental concerns - prioritising the greenest biofuels whether produced within the EU or imported. Speaking to a major conference on biofuels in Brussels, he argued: "Biofuel policy is not ultimately an industrial policy or an agricultural policy - it is an environmental policy, driven above all by the greenest outcomes".

Mandelson argued: "Europe should be open to accepting that we will import a large part of our biofuel resources...we should certainly not contemplate favouring EU production of biofuels with a weak carbon performance if we can import cheaper, cleaner, biofuels. Resource nationalism doesn't serve us particularly well in other areas of energy policy. Biofuels are no different".

Mandelson also argued that while biofuels can be a welcome source of new income for developing countries, "Europeans won't pay a premium for biofuels if the ethanol in their car is produced unsustainably... or if it comes at the expense of rainforests. We can't allow the switch to biofuels to become an environmentally unsustainable stampede in the developing world". To guard against this he will say that the EU should work with developing countries to help them regulate and verify that their biofuel exports are produced in a sustainable way. He said the EU should also use its own rules to encourage sustainable biofuel production domestically and internationally.