EU Visit To US To Strengthen Co-Operation In Non-Nuclear Energy Research Is A Success

Business Wire, June 23, 2008

WASHINGTON -- During the recent visit to the US by a delegation of European Commission officials led by Director for the Energy Program at DG Research, Mr. Raffaele Liberali, the European Union and the United States agreed to strengthen co-operation in the area of non-nuclear energy research on the basis of common interest and mutual benefit under the EU-US Science and Technology Co-operation Agreement.

Both sides have worked on the idea that the political energy and climate change dialogue should include R&D aspects on a systematic basis. For the first time this was translated in the final declaration of the EU-US Summit, where second generation bio-fuels, carbon capture and storage, energy efficiency, promising renewable energy technologies, hydrogen and fuel cells were mentioned as relevant topics for transatlantic R&D cooperation.

Responding to a US invitation, the European Commission representatives met R&D program officers of the US Department of Energy (DoE) and made technical visits to the US DoE's National Laboratories (NREL and NETL). This visit also allowed European officials to discuss with other interested US funding agencies such as the Department of Transportation or the Environmental Protection Agency.

The very comprehensive program of the visit allowed both sides to make substantial progress in the development of transatlantic R&D cooperation in the areas of Renewable Energy, Carbon Capture/ Storage and Hydrogen/Fuel cells.

In particular, Mr. Liberali, addressed the delegates of the recent US Hydrogen Program Annual Merit review to underline that the most advanced EU-US cooperation so far is on hydrogen and fuel cells. Concrete achievements have been delivered recently as a result of the very close collaboration with the US-DoE e.g. the project NextGenCell and others but also thanks to multi-lateral dialogue taking place under the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE). Mr. Liberali also stressed that the EU Joint Technology Initiative on Fuel Cells/Hydrogen will offer new opportunities for co-operation in research between EU and US companies and research institutes.

Mr. Liberali said that a strong effort is still needed for developing further cooperation in concrete terms. He took the opportunity offered by the first General Stakeholders Assembly of the EU Joint Technology Initiative on Fuel Cells/Hydrogen in Brussels and invited the US to a reciprocal visit to the EU during the week of October 13, 2008.