On 10th January 2007 the European Commission made proposals for a new Energy Policy for Europe. These included a Renewable Energy Roadmap proposing a binding 20% target for the overall share of renewable energy in 2020 for the EU. In March 2007, the Spring European Council adopted conclusions endorsing these objectives. In September 2007 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on renewable energy. Both institutions called on the Commission to follow-up with a legislative proposal. On 23rd January 2008 the Commission adopted a new energy and climate package including a proposal for a directive on the promotion of the use of renewable energy, setting national binding targets for the share of renewable energy consumption aimed at together achieving the overall 20% EU target.

The projections made for the Renewable Road Map of January 2007 suggested that offshore wind energy has the potential to make a significant contribution to reaching this target. However, exploiting this potential is associated with a number of specific challenges that might require further, more targeted actions.

The Commission is therefore preparing an Action Plan on offshore and coastal water wind energy. In doing so, the Commission would like to know the views of public authorities, businesses, non-governmental organisations and other interested parties on what

• are the most important barriers related to the future development of offshore energy in Europe,
• actions that might be taken to address these barriers, especially at EU level.

While the foreseen Action Plan will focus on wind energy, the European Commission is aware of the fact that some themes may also be relevant for other offshore renewable energy developments (like wave, tidal and ocean current energy). We therefore encourage stakeholders to contribute to this questionnaire also in the view of other offshore renewable energy resources.

The consultation is open from 24 April 2008 and closes on 20 June 2008.

Further information and the consultation questionnaire can be found at:

ec.europa.eu/energy/res/consultation/offshore_wind_energy_en.htm

The European Commission adopted, on 5 July 2007, a communication entitled "Towards a European Charter on the Rights of Energy Consumers" and at the same time launched a consultation on this issue which has resulted in over 70 contributions from across the EU.

As a follow-up, the Commission organised a conference in Brussels on 6 May 2008. The half-day conference, hosted by Commissioners Meglena Kuneva and Andris Piebalgs:

• officially presented the results of the consultation;
• launched the Citizens' Energy Forum announced in the Third Internal Energy Market Package of 19 September 2007. In parallel to existing fora dealing with electricity and gas markets, this Forum will focus on specific retail issues, and involve all stakeholders in building an EU-wide retail market.
• proposed a new approach to informing consumers by means of a European Energy Consumers' Checklist, designed to answer questions about local or regional retail markets. The Commission will prepare a list of relevant questions and invite national stakeholders to provide answers that will form an easily accessible data pool containing comprehensive local information in the consumer's language.
• proposed a list of voluntary commitments by stakeholders, aimed at cooperation and improving rights beyond the existing legal framework.

The conference was streamed live on the ManagEnergy Internet Broadcast Website at: www.managenergy.tv and the video recordings will be available on the same site by mid-May.

Find out more at: www.agathepower.eu/stakeholders_en.html

The 2008 Call for Proposals for Energy (FP7-ENERGY-2008-TREN-1) under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was published on 29 April 2008. In order to support the preparation of proposals, the Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) of the European Commission is holding an Information Day on 20 June 2008 in the Charlemagne Building, rue de la Loi n° 170, in Brussels.

The European Commission is pleased to welcome you on this occasion, and would appreciate if you could distribute this information to potential participants in your organisation, region or country.

The aim of this event is to disseminate information about FP7 and the research areas open in the 2008 Call for Proposals on Energy within the Cooperation Programme, to give details about the main legal and procedural conditions, and to answer any questions.

Participating in the event may also help you to make contact with other potential proposers and possible project partners.

Please register by 6 June 2008 at the latest. Your registration must be confirmed by the Commission.

Further information and a registration form can be found on the Europa website at:
ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/rtd/fp7/infoday_en.htm

The information day will be streamed live on the ManagEnergy Internet Broadcast Website at: www.managenergy.tv and the video recordings will be available on the same site shortly after the event.

The initial update of the ManagEnergy database of online energy education resources (the "teachers' database") has now been completed: www.managenergy.net/kidscorner/te2.html

• All archive web addresses have been checked and amended (or removed)
• Each entry has been ranked, so that more relevant sites are now shown higher in search results
• Numerous entries have been added, including many new websites and lesson plans in Spanish
• Screenshots of each website have now been added t o improve visual appeal and ease-of-use

Recent highlights include:

Kyoto in the Home - Ecoville Game ecovillelejeu.com/GB/index.html (FR EN HU ES IT RO CS PO) A sophisticated online competition to construct a sustainable town. Drag and drop different energy resources and new buildings to create the best sustainable settlement.	Green TV www.green.tv (EN) A web TV portal for online video and short films on energy, climate change, sustainability and other environmental topics.
Efficiencity www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/efficiencity/index.html (EN) An interactive climate-friendly town with animated diagrams of wind energy, solar, biomass CHP, energy saving and sustainable transport.	EcoHéroes por el clima www.ecoheroes.es (ES) Become an ecohero and help save energy and the planet!
EcoAgents ecoagents.eea.europa.eu (BG CS DA DE EN ET EL ES FI FR IS IT LT LV HU NO PO PL PT RO SL SV TR) A superb online game with customisable avatars, interactive comic books and environmental missions.	KidsCall www.kidscall.info (DE EN FR ES SL EL IT SV PT NO PL RO ) Children are encouraged to submit their concerns (pictures, writing, photos, etc) to be presented to world leaders at the G8 Summit in Japan!

Please check out the database entries for your language. If you can recommend any websites that would provide useful information, photos, diagrams, animations, videos or other online resources for teachers or children, please send an e-mail with the subject  "NEW WEBSITE FOR TEACHER DATABASE" to kidscorner@managenergy.net

Please include the web address for the resources and a short summary in 50 words.

Thank you, ManagEnergy KidsCorner Team

ManagEnergy has recently created a new thematic page to assist SMEs in gaining access to locally relevant energy information. You can the page in the Thematic Pages section of the site; the page includes legislation, funding, local experiences, networking and sources of further information.

Despite the popular focus on big industry, SMEs - whose collective energy consumption and environmental impact are immense - are well placed to boost their energy efficiency and introduce renewable energy technologies, which are often local and small-scale by nature. It seems evident that the objectives set up by the EU in the field of renewables and energy efficiency will not be met without a clear involvement of industry and in particular SMEs.

New and renewable issues as well as energy efficiency are of great importance to SMEs. Indeed, small and medium-sized enterprises must be aware of the opportunities offered by new and renewable energies. In addition, a more responsible and efficient use of energy will not only enable SMEs to save money but will also have an impact on the image of a company as an energy- and environmentally-responsible company.

View Thematic Page for SMEs

The communities and regions that we live in, whether urban or rural, are the environments that have the most direct influence on our lives. We all want our local area to be as prosperous and as clean as possible. To this end, a Seventh Sectoral Information Kit on Sustainable Communities was published this month. This complements the first six covering Energy Use in Buildings; Education; Changing Behaviour; EU Funding for Sustainable Energy; Energy Efficient Products and Appliances and Energy Efficient transport.

Content of the Sectoral Information Kit on Sustainable Communities:

• What is the EU doing (policies, funding, initiatives)?
• Sustainable energy for local development
• Good practice: Green Light Graz – Modernisation and saving energy at street lighting in the city of Graz (Austria) – Graz Energy Agency
• The Covenant of Mayors
• Public involvement in sustainable energy activities
• Good practice: Cornwall sustainable energy partnership, UK

You can view all seven kits online at: www.managenergy.net/sik.html

The eighth Sectoral Information Kit on Energy End-Use and Energy Services will be online in early May 2008.

Participants in the ManagEnergy Annual Conference (ME AC), which took place during the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) in January 2008, were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to evaluate their impressions of the events.

The results have now been analysed and we are pleased to confirm that the general impression of the Annual Conference activities were judged to be good or very good by all those who completed the questionnaire. Individually the ManagEnergy workshops, training, stand and partner search facilities were judged to be good or very good by at least 75% of the participants.

The questionnaire respondents were from a spread of organizations and attended the Annual Conference for a range of reasons including networking, meeting the Commission and networking and to find information in an existing or new area of interest.

In addition, respondents were invited to comment on:

• Most valuable speaker or presentation/subject
• Subjects that may have been overlooked
• Areas where there is a need for ManagEnergy to arrange workshops or conferences
• Whether they will visit the website after the event and why/why not
• Any other suggestions or feedback 

The evaluation report including all comments (some of which relate to EUSEW as a whole) is available as a PDF:

Download the evaluation report (127 Kb PDF)

Thank you to everyone who responded. We value your opinion and will be using the results of this evaluation to maintain high standards and tailor future events to your need.  

If you have not yet completed the evaluation and would like to do so, you can download it from:

www.managenergy.net/conference/2008/Evaluation_Questionnaire_2008.doc (170 Kb Word .doc)

By the end of April 2008, there were more than 250 Partner Search Requests on the ManagEnergy website posted by those looking for partners, not just for the recent Intelligent Energy - Europe (IEE) call, but also for projects under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and other programmes such as ENPI and Interreg IV.

The recent IEE call has lead to an influx of partner search requests. These are added to the ManagEnergy database and website manually to maintain the value of the website and prevent misuse. This increase in demand has meant that it is taking longer than usual for your partner search requests to be uploaded to the site. We apologise for the delay, and expect to have caught up by early May.

In the meantime, please continue to post your requests and we will endeavour to make them available online as soon as possible.

You can find the partner search form online at: www.managenergy.net/partnerform.html

Thank you to the local and regional energy actors that have signed up for the Sectoral Advice service. You have been issued with a username and password which gives you access to the ManagEnergy Network Members area as well as a dedicated discussion forum.

New Sectoral Advice assignments  have been recently contracted,  including:

• Advice to an Italian Local Energy Agency on an energy efficiency measures in managing public buildings: a mapping system.
• Advice  to a  Bulgarian Local Energy Agency on energy education for secondary schools students and teachers.
• Advice to a Spanish Regional Energy Agency on sustainable mobility planning.

The Sectoral Advice facility is also providing seminar moderators/speakers on energy performance contracting and on sustainable transport to the Green Energy conference on 19 & 20 May 2008, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

Find out more about the Sectoral Advice facility

The next ManagEnergy training session for Directors and Deputy Directors of Local and Regional Energy agencies will take place in Verona on May 15-16, at the time of the SolarExpo fair. You can download the programme and the inscription form below, or at: www.solarexpo.com/solarexpo/ita/programma/08/corsi/corsi.asp

ManagEnergy will be present at a number of events during 2008. If you are attending any of these events, take advantage of the opportunity to discuss ManagEnergy services, tools and facilities with a member of the ManagEnergy Support Team. Click on the links below for further details.

The Green Week is organised in Brussels every year by the European Commission, Directorate-General Environment. This year the theme will be "Sustainable use of natural resources (including sustainable production and consumption)" and ManagEnergy will have a stand to present its tools and services for local and regional energy actors.

We are looking forward to meet many of you at the ManagEnergy stand at the Green Week.

Find out more about Green Week 2008 at: ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/poster.html

The Open Days are organised by the Committee of the Regions and Directorate General for Regional Policy and they will take place from the 6-9 October 2008 in Brussels.

4000 people are expected to visit the Investors Café. It acts as a unique forum for communication and meeting place between private and public companies and regions and cities, enabling them to discover the rich diversity and economic attractiveness of European regions/cities and to identify investment and job creation opportunities. The investor's café is organised among four thematic priorities, one of them being "Sustainable development: regional answers to climate change (including energy)"

A wide range of seminars will be organised by partners regions and in the framework of the Investors café.

ManagEnergy is organizing a workshop in the framework of the Investors' Café thematic village "energy" on "helping municipalities to work in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors". The workshop will take place in the morning of 8 October 2008.

We welcome all the Local and Regional Energy Agencies to take part in the Open Days 2008.

More on the Open Days 2008 and the ManagEnergy Workshop

More about the Covenant of Mayors