EU agriculture chief: Biofuel policy realistic and sustainable

Mariann Fischer-Boel has responded to criticism of the EU's biofuels policy, arguing that it can bring real benefits to everyone.

Responding to suggestions from the environmental lobby that biofuel production may do more harm than good, she writes in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine that the methods the EU employs to produce biofuels mitigate any potential for environmental harm they might cause.

"While we take well-reasoned arguments extremely seriously, we have not seen anything yet to deflect us from the goals [that biofuel will make up 10 per cent of transport fuel by 2020] signed up to earlier this year by EU leaders," she says.

The agriculture commissioner says that speeding up the production of the second generation of fuels will have a huge positive impact on Europe's CO2 emissions.

"I will look into the possibility of abolishing the current aid to first-generation biofuels and diverting the money to promote innovation in second-generation biofuels," the commissioner adds.