Tag: energy supply

MEPs and local NGOs worry that that the European Commission is bypassing civil society and environmental rules as it devises an energy strategy for the Western Balkan region.

Industry is waiting for national energy regulators in each member state to decide how to distribute the costs involved in the roll-out of smart meters, which could fall on consumers, depending on each market's 'peculiarities', John Harris, of smart metering company Landis+Gyr, told EurActiv.

Hungary's plan to nationalise E.ON is the latest instance of the Orbán administration's efforts to consolidate control over the country's energy and utilities sector. The operation is expected to cost nearly €2 billion at a time of challenging economic problems for the country, writes Stratfor.

European governments are rushing to boost stockpiles of crude oil and fuel, anxious to comply with new EU rules and amid reports that Israel is preparing to launch an attack on Iran.

Greece's debt crisis threatened to turn into an energy crunch, with the power regulator calling an emergency meeting this week to avert a collapse of the country's electricity and natural gas system.

Offshore wind cost reduction, natural gas and energy efficiency are some of the solutions that the EU could use in order to achieve its ambitious targets and boost its competitiveness in the energy arena, writes Anders Eldrup, chief executive of Dong Energy

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom has restricted supplies to Europe, its largest foreign market, to cover an increase in domestic demand caused by a cold snap. 

The European Parliament's environment committee has thrown its weight behind binding energy efficiency targets for member states in a vote held yesterday (20 December). However, there it little chance that these will survive in later versions of the draft energy efficiency directive, EurActiv was told.

Britons' complaints about their energy suppliers rose by 26% from July to September, says a report published by Consumer Focus, a leading UK consumer watchdog.

The European oil industry rang the alarm yesterday (20 September) on the impact of EU energy efficiency legislation on oil refining activities, warning of the end of the sector in Europe.

Central and Eastern European gas markets have long suffered from isolation and fragmentation, leaving them vulnerable to both supply disruptions and to monopoly pricing power. However, new research suggests that countries collectively negotiating with gas exporters could remedy this problem, argues economist and energy researcher Edward Hunter Christie.

As the EU struggles to meet its target of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020, energy efficiency grants from a reallocated fund worth eight billion euros are still going unclaimed, according to a top European Commission official who spoke to EurActiv in an interview.

The EU's diplomacy skills need to be kick-started to reflect a geopolitical shift towards the East, writes Grigory Nemyria, former deputy prime minister of Ukraine.

Renewable energy is set to make up nearly two-thirds of new electricity generation capacity installed in the EU over the next decade, according to new estimates by the European Commission.

For several months, Germany has been discussing the future of its energy policy. Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel went on an 'energy tour' across the country to meet different stakeholders and visit various power plants. These included renewable energy as well as nuclear sites. EurActiv Germany reports.

Berlin is opposed to Poland receiving an EU grant to construct an LNG gas terminal on its Baltic coast due to environmental concerns. But the Polish press argues that the real cause of Germany's unease is that the new terminal would compete with the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

The Nabucco pipeline project has taken another step forward by ordering engineering work for two feeder lines from Turkey to Iraq and Georgia. However, a third planned feeder line from Turkey to Iran has been put on the back-burner due to political considerations, the consortium announced.

Poland is preventing EU companies from buying its surplus Russian gas, infringing EU internal market rules, the European Commission said yesterday (14 July).

The European Union should consider a moratorium on new deepwater drilling for oil until a probe is completed into the causes of BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Europe's energy chief said on yesterday (7 July).

Recent events show that relations with Turkey deserve to be taken more seriously, writes Joschka Fischer, a former German vice-chancellor and foreign minister and former leader of the German Green Party.

The front runner in Poland's presidential election, Bronisław Komorowski, said on 27 June that Warsaw could not sign a long-awaited gas deal with Moscow if it were to find enough shale gas in its territory.

Ukraine can transit more gas through its territory to the EU to compensate for the reduced gas flow across Belarus, which resulted from the latter's payment conflict with Russian monopolist Gazprom, Kiev announced yesterday (23 June).

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the gas monopoly Gazprom to cut gas supplies to Belarus, the Kremlin's press office said today (21 June), in a move which it is feared may affect supplies to Europe.

Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, is ready to exclude Bulgaria from its planned South Stream pipeline, apparently in retaliation to Sofia's decision to scrap an oil pipeline designed to circumvent the Bosphorus strait, the Russian daily Kommersant writes today (17 June).