NEWS
Prime Minister Borut Pahor at the round table discussion on Slovenian energy industry: “In the field of energy supply, the main issue is that of competitiveness.”
Prime Minister Borut Pahor today attended a round table discussion at Brdo entitled »Slovenian Energy Industry 2020: Successful in Terms of Business and Sustainability?«, which was held in the framework of the second strategic meeting of participants at the energy market entitled "Business Sustainable Breakthrough"; Prime Minister Pahor held the opening address, too. The Prime Minister stressed that Slovenia must devote its full attention to the issues of energy supply, efficient use of energy and energy sovereignty.
»I dare say that we are at the turning point as regards energy, for the issue of energy brings something new; besides, the European Union devotes an extreme attention to the issue of energy sovereignty because of concerns and opportunities it sees in the energy industry, « said Prime Minister Pahor. The issues of energy supply, efficient use of energy and the attitude towards the energy trade partners outside Europe will be the focus of the EU summit held in February 2011, which happens very rarely; as the Prime Minister underlined: “As far as energy supply is concerned, the key issue is that of competitiveness,” which is a considerable problem for the EU because it advocates the principle of sustainable development while some member states do not want to hear this, intending to continue with their old ways.
“Slovenia, too, is facing this turning point,” said Prime Minister and added that the Government would send the new national energy programme together with the environmental report for the public discussion in mid-November, expecting “a heated but hopefully constructive dialogue. As all Member States, Slovenia sent its action plan for renewable sources of energy to Brussels in early July. Our objectives are ambitious and financially demanding, but if we fail to achieve them, the financial penalty will be even higher,” he emphasised. “Same as Europe, Slovenia focuses on the use of renewable energy; this year alone we will earmark over 90 million euro for the promotion of the production of energy from renewable sources and annually increase this sum in the next few years,” said the Prime Minister and added that this subsidy scheme had led to the construction of over 200 sun power and several natural gas plants in this year alone.
The Prime Minister stressed that the key energy sources of the future are solar energy, wind and biomass, while the key form of energy in the future would be electricity, so the use of different forms of energy would decrease despite the economic growth, as the users would be forced to do so because of prices and because the Government would contribute to it, too. He stated that the EU directives and the requirements of the Court of Auditors obliged the Government “to carry out the necessary reorganisation, which must enable stable and lucrative operation of all sectors of electricity distribution,” and added that the Government would make particular efforts to prevent any job loss in this reorganisation.
At the end of his speech the Prime Minister underlined that it is unlikely for the future energy supply to find new technologies bringing universal redemption soon, so it is necessary to improve the existing technologies and create proper conditions for them, which is unfortunately a rare occurrence in the energy industry, Slovenian as well as global. "If sovereign energy supply is a part of our future, we might have to ask ourselves why the Slovenian energy industry does not have its own institute for the development of technologies of production of energy from renewable sources,« reflected the Prime Minister in his speech and added that this could considerably contribute to additional knowledge and solutions of different crucial issues and challenges in the field of energy industry in Slovenia.