Mr. Hervé Bernard, Chairman of EERA, sent a message on 7 October to all EERA members, commenting on the role of the organisation in the SET-Plan.
"Dear EERA members
September 2015 has been an interesting month for EERA and for the SET-Plan. On September 15, the European Commission published its communication for the new SET-Plan and on September 21-22 the SET-Plan conference 2015 was held in Luxembourg.
The new SET-Plan communication is called Towards an Integrated Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan: Accelerating the European Energy System Transformation. It sets out the priorities for the coming years, based on an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of the SET-Plan up until now. Furthermore it foresees at new governance structure which is currently discussed with the Member States in the SET-Plan Steering Group.
We – the European Energy Research Alliance – are also mentioned in the Commission’s communication. However, I consider the comments EERA receive in the document to reflect a too negative assessment of our contributions to the SET-Plan so far.
At the SET-Plan conference in Luxembourg I therefore made it clear that we in EERA Support the European Commission’s wish to renew the SET-Plan, but that we found the Communication’s evaluation of EERA was a little unbalanced. You can read the speech I delivered here.
However, I am happy to report that in discussions with several European Commission officials’ EERA’s important role in the SET-Plan was confirmed. This was also reiterated at a meeting we had this week with the European Commission and other SET-Plan stakeholders. EERA continues as a key stakeholder in the EU SET-Plan and we look forward to continue our collaboration with the European Commission and the Member States.
Let us now all work together to continue and to strengthen the contribution EERA makes to the EU SET-Plan.
Hervé Bernard, EERA Chairman"
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