Commission proposals on biofuels will damage Romania’s interests

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By Laurențiu Rebega

31.10.2016

The change of EU policy on biofuels will undermine Romania’s potential to become one of Europe’s most important sources of clean renewable fuel, writes Laurențiu Rebega.

Ethanol production has created what has been described as a ‘quiet revolution’ in rural America.

 

[eXtension Farm Energy Community of Practice / Flickr]

Laurențiu Rebega is a Romanian politician and a member of the European Parliament with the Europe of Nations and Freedom Group (ENF). 

In 2009, the EU enacted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). That legislation was intended to promote the use of biofuels as a clean renewable alternative to fossil fuels that would help the EU climate change targets and reduce air pollution that causes tens of thousands of death in EU member states every year.

In addition to the other major advantages, biofuels produced in Europe were seen as a means of creating jobs, particularly in rural areas, and of improving farm incomes. Romania was, and remains, the EU member state that will benefit most from such a policy.

One commercial group that looked at Romania as a potential site for producing bioethanol in 2011-2012 calculated that Romania had the capacity to produce up to 18 billion litres of ethanol annually, a figure which if fully realised would create tens of thousands of jobs and add significantly to the country’s GDP.

 

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