France, Poland say EU needs energy union to ensure supplies

(PARIS) - France and Poland put forward a proposal for a European energy community on Thursday, to counter the dependence of some European countries on Russian gas.

French President Francois Hollande and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the proposal, against the background of the Ukraine crisis, for discussion at a European summit on energy policy in June.

Hollande said in a joint statement that the purpose was to make "Europe more independent, more coherent, more cooperative in its energy policy".

France and Poland were putting forward a plan with six points to convince all members of the European Union to head towards "the European energy community", he said.

The term is a reference to the founding pillars of the European Economic Community, which preceded the European Union, and which began with a Coal and Steel Community.

Tusk said that the proposal would serve the interests of the entire European Union which, he said was in a "critical situation" in view of the crisis in Ukraine.

The European Union could no longer be so dependent on Russian gas, he said.

The EU had to invest in infrastructure which would connect all of its members to a network of gas pipelines, and also had to push forward with new sources of energy.

Tusk raised the possibility of the EU buying liquefied gas from the United States or from Australia, saying steps in these directions should be made as soon as possible.

Countries to the south, in the Mediterranean basin coud also be important suppliers, he said.

Tusk said that the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, had expressed support for the French-Polish proposal and that experts working for the President of the European Commission were already working on the proposals for the summit in June.