The spring 2007 European Council called on Member States and EU institutions to
pursue actions to develop a sustainable integrated European climate and energy policy.
The Council stated among other things: "Given that energy production and use are the
main sources for greenhouse gas emissions, an integrated approach to climate and
energy policy is needed to realise this objective. Integration should be achieved in a
mutually supportive way. With this in mind, the Energy Policy for Europe (EPE) will
pursue the following three objectives, fully respecting Member States’ choice of
energy mix and sovereignty over primary energy sources and underpinned by a spirit
of solidarity amongst Member States:
- increasing security of supply;
- ensuring the competitiveness of European economies and the availability of
affordable energy;
- promoting environmental sustainability and combating climate change."
As a milestone in the creation of this Energy Policy for Europe, the European Council
supported a comprehensive Energy Action Plan for the period 2007-2009 and invited
in particular the Commission to submit the proposals requested in the Action Plan as
speedily as possible. One of these proposals relates to the review of the Community
guidelines on State aid for environmental protection.
The European Council made a firm independent commitment for the EU to achieve at
least a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to 1990. It also
stressed the need to increase energy efficiency in the EU so as to achieve the objective
of saving 20% of the EU’s energy consumption compared to projections for 2020, and
endorsed a binding target of a 20% share of renewable energies in overall EU energy
consumption by 2020 as well as a 10% binding minimum target to be achieved by all
Member States for the share of biofuels in overall EU transport petrol and diesel
consumption by 2020.
These new guidelines constitute one of the instruments to implement the Action Plan
and the environmental aspects of the energy- and climate change-related targets
decided by the European Council.

Testo integrale: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/state_aid/reform/environmental_guidelines_en.pdf