At their meeting at Hampton Court on 27 September 2005, EU heads of state and government discussed a plan presented by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair to create a common EU energy policy. Observers say that this move represents a U-turn by the UK government, who had so far resisted all initiatives to co-ordinate energy policy at European level.
In particular, Blair's initiative included the following suggestions:
- better interconnection between the EU's power grids in order to establish one single grid;
- EU-wide co-orperation on gas storage, possibly through an inter-governmental agreement or through ceding national powers to the Commission;
- Exchange of information on security of supply
- Maintaining Europe's lead in climate change policies, including the Emissions Trading System (ETS), renewables policy, and the Kyoto commitments
Although there was no concrete outcome of the debate at Hampton Court, Tony Blair concluded that "there was an agreement to take forward work in the energy sector, including how we try to establish a common European grid". He referred to existing interconnections of the power grids between certain countries, but he said that much more needed to be done. "It is important that energy policy is something that we work on together as a European Union, given the fact that according to the European Commission, over the next few years we will start to import round about 90% of our oil and gas needs in Europe," he said.
A Commission proposal on improvements in the EU's electricity infrastructure was presented in December 2003 (see EurActiv 11 December 2003). After the Parliament adopted its resolution in July 2007, the ball is now in the Council's court.
