Tag: Energy Policy for Europe

Energy efficiency can increase the EU's energy independence and should take centre stage in the Commission's upcoming second strategic energy review, argue a group of MEPs in a letter to future EU presidencies. 

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'.

Massive solar power installations in the Sahara desert could feed the EU's growing energy demand via a new supergrid. The idea is backed by France and the UK, which is simultaneously trying to limit priority access for renewables to domestic grids.

The European Parliament is urging the Commission to make available considerable funds to drive the use of less polluting energy technologies as part of the EU's efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

"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.

The Commission's services are engaged in intense negotiations to finalise controversial energy and climate proposals, which are under heavy attack from industry groups and some member states, who warn the plans could destroy Europe's competitiveness. Green groups have come to the defence of the proposals.

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.

The Commission's Director-General for Energy and Transport, Matthias Ruete, spoke with EurActiv on 28 September concerning the Commission's efforts to create an internal market for energy in the EU. Ruete was upbeat about the creation of more European companies in the sector, despite efforts by some member states to create 'national champions', and hopes that EU legislators will agree quickly on the different aspects of the Commission's third energy package in order to attract crucial investments.

Matthias Ruete is Director-General of the Energy and Transport Directorate at the European Commission.  

Meeting the external challenge posed by Russia requires a major re-orientation of EU energy policy and a robust approach to security of supply, writes Dieter Helm in a 3 September paper.

EU support for renewable energy currently "suffers from fragmented, uncoordinated national policies", writes Sheldon Welton for the think tank Notre Europe.

A proposal to further liberalise the EU's energy market, due on 19 September, is to present member states with alternative options to full 'ownership unbundling' in an effort to ward off a veto threat from nine countries led by Germany and France, EU officials have told EurActiv.

The second half of 2007 promises renewed tensions as legislators prepare to hammer out the EU's future energy policy. Controversial Commission proposals on energy market liberalisation are due in September, with renewables and CO2 burden-sharing proposals scheduled for the end of the year.

On 26 June, panellists from a range of sectors debated the role of regulation, fiscal incentives, consumers and other issues related to the transformation of the EU's energy market in light of climate-change and energy-security concerns.

Poland’s newly appointed Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Jan Tombiński, explains his country’s position on EU institutional reforms, the Russian ban on Polish meat, the Baltic pipeline and the EU's future prospects, 50 years after the Treaty of Rome was signed.

The German energy giant dropped its €42.4 billion offer for Endesa, ending an 18-month battle that saw E.ON’s bid for the Spanish utility thwarted by repeated government intervention.

Officials said that the Commission was still unsure about how it will share the burden among member states, after EU leaders agreed earlier in March to have 20% of their overall energy needs covered by renewables by 2020.

In this article for think-tank Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP), German Economics and TechnologyMinister Michael Glos highlights the key elements of the German EU Presidency's energy policy.

European leaders have agreed to a legally binding objective to meet 20% of their energy needs with renewables such as wind power in a fresh drive to put the EU on track to a low-carbon economy by 2020.

With energy and climate change stealing the headlines at this year's Spring European Council, environmental NGOs and industry groups ranging from large power utilities to the international margarine association are all trying to grab media attention.

The UK has joined Germany, the European Commission and other member states to push for an EU target on renewable energies to be made mandatory, raising the stakes of the Spring Summit that will take place in Brussels on 8-9 March 2007.

Commission proposals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020 should receive backing by the Environment Council on 20 February, despite opposition from Hungary and Poland.

Richard L. Morningstar, a lecturer at Stanford Law School, analyses the potential of the Caspian Region to lessen Europe's over-dependence on Russian gas, particularly considering the potential of gas-rich nations such as Kazakhstan.

The Russian president has said that Moscow wishes to play by market rules on energy supply and transit as he sought to calm European fears voiced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Speaking exclusively to EurActiv, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs says that new energy and climate-change proposals should lead to higher prices for consumers. But paying 5% more now will avoid much steeper price hikes in the future, he argues.