Commission begins work on Energy Union

06 February 2015
by eub2 -- last modified 06 February 2015

The Commission has begun work on an EU Energy Union - seen as a fundamental step towards the completion of single energy market and reforming how Europe produces, transports and consumes energy.

The Energy Union with a Forward-looking Climate Change Policy is one of the key political priorities of the Juncker Commission. After more than 60 years from the founding of the Coal and Steel Community, the Commission today drew a plan for reorganising European energy policies and kicked off work for European Energy Union.

The Energy Union is timely, says the Commission. The European Union imports 55% of its energy. 90% of the housing stock in Europe is energy inefficient, our energy infrastructure is ageing and the internal energy market is far from complete.

Energy security is high on the political agenda, and a door for an ambitious climate agreement in Paris at the end of 2015 was opened in the European Council last October. The recently adopted Investment Plan for Europe is designed to unlock the financial means the energy sector really needs. The currently low oil prices are also giving an extra incentive and give more political and financial room to do what is necessary to achieve a more competitive, secure and sustainable European energy policy.

The Energy Union framework strategy is scheduled for adoption on 25 February. This strategic policy document will be accompanied by the "Road to Paris" Communication spelling out the EU's intended climate contribution as well as a Communication reporting on EU's progress towards the minimum electricity interconnection target of 10%.

 

Background:

In his Political Guidelines presented to the European Parliament on 15 July 2014, President Juncker announced that "Europe relies too heavily on fuel and gas imports. We need to reduce this dependency while keeping our energy market open to countries outside the EU. Therefore we need to pool our resources, combine our infrastructures and unite our negotiating power with third countries. We owe it to future generations to limit the impact of climate change and to keep energy affordable – by using more energy from renewable sources and becoming more energy efficient."

The orientation debate on 4 February discussed the aims of the Energy Union, and at the top were the diversifying of energy sources currently available to the Member States, helping EU countries become less dependent on energy imports and making the EU the world number one in renewable energy and leading the fight against global warming.

Adoption of the Energy Union package scheduled for 25.2.2015.