EU boosts green energy with infrastructure plan

BRUSSELS, April 23 (Reuters) - European ambassadors on Thursday approved a plan to spend 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) overhauling energy infrastructure, and kept open the possibility of using unspent money to improve energy efficiency.

The plan is part of EU attempts to bolster itself against energy shocks and follows this winter's gas crisis, caused by a price row between Moscow and transit country Ukraine.

That crisis shook the EU, which has been uneasy about its reliance for energy on the newly assertive Moscow since Russia invaded neighbouring Georgia last August.

EU ministers will now have to rubberstamp the plan before it faces its final hurdle, a European Parliament vote in May, said an official from the Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"In May, the European Commission should be able to start with tenders," said the official. "The Commission has been given the possibility of proposing that unspent money is used for energy efficiency, but that is not legally binding."

The plan to subsidise new power projects and hundreds of kilometres of gas pipelines and power cables was meant to enable the bloc's member states to help each other during energy crises and to help the bloc cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The option of using unspent money for energy efficiency programmes was introduced by the European Parliament, which on Thursday voted in rules to ensure buildings built after 2018 will have to generate as much energy as they consume.

Churches and mosques, small houses and farm buildings would be excluded from the plan.

"Putting the focus on energy saving is good for everyone -- it reduces consumers' bills, cuts our harmful greenhouse gas emissions and creates jobs," said Luxembourg Green politician Claude Turmes, who also criticised his colleagues for not being bolder.