(RIGA) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday EU members must work together with other nations to diversify energy supply, as he began a two-day visit to the Latvian capital.

"One area where we have to work together is precisely energy as a global problem," Barroso said at a press conference with Latvian President Valdis Zatlers. "Member states alone cannot deal with it. It needs a global solution"

The European Commission set out a sweeping strategy to fight climate change last month and called on EU members to ratchet up their use of renewable energy and biofuels, while also unveiling plans to make industry pay for the right to pollute.

"We hope it will be adopted as soon as possible so that we can get full benefits as the biggest energy market in the world," Barroso said.

"The key for independence in today's world is not by closing up, but the opposite, by opening, by diversification of sources of energy, diversification of countries of origin of energy and diversification of routes."

Regarding nuclear energy, Barroso said: "It is up to the member states to decide or not."

Having belonged to the Soviet Union prior to regaining independence in 1991, Latvia and Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania were plugged into the Soviet power grid. Since joining the EU in 2004, steps have been taken to link their electrical grids with nearby EU states.

Lithuania and its fellow 2004 EU entrants Poland, Latvia and Estonia are together planning to build a new nuclear plant at the site of Lithuania's existing Soviet-era Chernobyl-type nuclear reactor. The Baltic state agreed to close the 1980s facility by 2010 as part of its EU accession deal.

The new facility is meant to come on stream by 2015, although some experts have suggested that 2017-2020 is a more realistic target. In the meantime, the Lithuanian authorities have been pushing Brussels to allow a temporary extension of the old Ignalina reactor's lifespan.

On Tuesday, Poland and Lithuania signed a deal paving the way to hook up their electricity grids, helping offset Russia's energy clout in the region and clearing a hurdle to related plans to build the new Ignalina power plant.

"Latvia and the Baltics are like an island detached from the common European energy network," Zatlers said, calling the Ignalina project a "solution" to Baltic energy needs.

The EU chief will hold talks with Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis on Friday.

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