Sweden wants to broker a first-reading agreement on these laws by the end of the year. It will begin negotiations with or without a council agreement on the proposals, energy minister Maud Olofsson told her EU colleagues on Friday. "We have to shift into top gear… if we are to meet our December deadline for [a deal]", she said.

The European Parliament has already adopted first-reading positions on all three draft laws. But a number of governments have expressed opposition to some of the amendments tabled by MEPs, particularly on plans to revise the EU energy performance of buildings directive.

Ms Olofsson was speaking at a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg. During the meeting several ministers reiterated their concerns over the economic and administrative impact the parliament's plans for buildings would have.

Plans to revise the EU's energy labelling directive are proving the most problematic. On Friday, Italy and Germany spoke out against the parliament's call for a closed A to G scale format for the new label. The Netherlands insisted that "consumers like the A to G label".

Council discussions on the labelling proposal have been put on hold, pending the results of a consumer survey hastily organised by the European Commission following the parliament's rejection in May of a new open-ended energy label for televisions.

EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs said reaching an agreement on the labelling proposal was the "number one priority", because the current impasse was holding up the adoption of new labels for appliances such as TVs. "At the moment it is practically impossible for the commission to propose new labels as the parliament will reject them", he said.

Mr Piebalgs also announced the launch earlier this week of a public consultation on commission plans to revise the 2006 energy efficiency action plan later this year. Ms Olofsson said energy efficiency would be the focus of an informal meeting of energy ministers in Sweden in July.