Tag: Common energy policy

Hungary plans to concentrate on the big picture of EU energy policy as it takes on the EU's rotating presidency in January. Energy will feature prominently at the new presidency's first EU summit on 4 February.

Europe is at a crossroads: to boost growth and emerge from the economic crisis, it needs to forge an energy community with or without treaty change, said European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek at a meeting with national parliamentarians in Brussels. 

The completion of the Nabucco gas pipeline may be delayed by four years to 2018, the European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview published in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday (25 March).

Germany's Günther Oettinger, who has been nominated for the European Commission's energy portfolio, sought to prove his European credentials at his confirmation hearing by outlining plans to enforce energy solidarity and spelling an end to bilateral energy deals with suppliers such as Russia.

Maria João Rodrigues, one of the architects of the EU's Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs, believes the EU needs a revised strategy which is greener, with a stronger focus on climate change and energy. She spoke to EurActiv in an interview on the sidelines of the European Business Summit.

The European Parliament yesterday (3 February) endorsed a comprehensive blueprint for the bloc's future energy policy, including more ambitious targets on climate change and renewable energies in proposals due to be submitted to EU leaders next month.

At a landmark summit in December 2008, EU leaders reached agreement over an energy and climate change 'package' to deliver the bloc's ambitious objectives of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions and boosting renewable energies by 20% by 2020. The package is designed to reduce the Union's dependency on imported fuels and set the pace of "a new global industrial revolution".

The partnership will involve investments worth over €600 million to support electrification in Africa as well as renewable energy projects that would help diversify Europe's energy supplies. A further agreement could be reached on Wednesday on a Transaharan Gas Pipeline, nicknamed the 'African Nabucco'.

"Europe must respond to the growing assertiveness of energy-producing countries with a much more coherent strategy of its own," writes Jozias Van Aartsen, a former Dutch foreign minister, in a March article for Europe's World.

EU plans to build an 'energy community' to deal with the challenge of climate change, security of supply and competitiveness are "as full of risks as […] hopes" given the "violent conflicts of interest and prejudices" involved, according to Philippe Herzog, president of French think tank Confrontations Europe.

Commenting on the European Commission's third energy package, Philippe de Ladoucette, president of the 'Commission de régulation de l'énergie', the French energy regulator, says that he is in favour of an EU agency for cooperation between European energy regulators. He spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

Following the failure of the May EU Summit in Samara, the Kremlin's withdrawal from the CFE Treaty suggests a further deterioration in dialogue between the EU and Russia. In an interview with EurActiv France, Thomas Gomart, Russian programme director for the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), reconsiders the possibility of a new energy relationship.

The ten initiatives for regional gas and electricity markets, launched in spring 2006, have identified priorities and are shortly to be moved into their implementation phase.

The European Commission will ask EU leaders to support a Strategic Energy Technology Plan to put Europe on course for a low-carbon future at the Spring Summit this week. However, national considerations once again risk dampening EU ambitions.

In a paper to be presented this week, the Commission proposes a three-year road map towards a common European energy policy, with the aim of achieving a 20% greenhouse-gas emissions reduction by 2020.

In a policy paper of the Schuman Foundation, Joachim Bitterlich (Former adviser of German Chancellor Kohl) gives an overview of current European and international energy concerns, and supports the case for a common EU energy policy.

In a letter to the Financial Times, Loyola de Palacio (together with other former energy Commissioners and European energy regulators) says the EU needs "better energy," not just "more energy." She has ten suggestions to improve the EU internal energy market.