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Abstract

In the EU, the biofuels policy now has a significant impact on some sectors, such as the oilseeds, and future targets are likely to affect also the grains and sugar market. The paper provides a background information regarding the EU policy on biofuels. The purpose is to assess whether this policy may lead to an increase use of European agricultural products for energy, or whether it is more likely that the EU will shift towards imports of biofuels. We first describe the EU policy of support to energy crops, i.e. tax exemption for biofuels and mandatory incorporation targets in some member states, the impact on demand and supply of biofuels. We then focus on the prospects for the production and utilization of biofuels in the EU. We address the three related issues of energy efficiency, environmental benefits and cost competitiveness of EU biofuels and we present simulations regarding the competition between food and non food use of agricultural products and the consequences on the competitiveness of biofuels.

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