(LONDON) - The head of Spain's biggest oil group criticised the European Union for not formulating a cohesive energy policy, in an interview published Friday.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Repsol YPF President Antonio Brufau said the 27-nation bloc was "not advancing in the right direction" in terms of energy policy.

"We have to have one single voice, one single policy, one single market," Brufau said, arguing that the fact that Germany negotiated a bilateral gas deal with Russia showed that "Europe was failing".

He added that European countries had to "look closely at the balance between national oil companies and international oil companies. Do (European) markets belong to (Russian energy giant) Gazprom, or to the international oil companies of Europe?"

Brufau said that a common energy policy across the bloc would help the EU negotiate energy deals with producer countries, and added that the EU should consider changing its funding priorities from agricultural subsidies to technological research.

"Europe is already subsidising many things," he said.

"The question is: should we be subsidising agriculture or new technologies?"

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