EU Commission Adopts Strategy on Energy Union

European Commissioner for Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic (L), and EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Canete (R) hold a joint news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 25 February 2015.

The College of Commissioners adopted its strategy on the Energy Union on Wednesday, which focuses on achievement of sustainable energy union and forward-looking policy on climate change.

Vice-President responsible for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic and Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete presented the strategy.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that energy has been excluded from the Union's fundamental freedoms, which necessitated the completion of a single energy market.

Commissioner Sefcovic identified the energy union as the “most ambitious European energy project since the Coal and Steel Community”.

The strategy includes a solidarity clause, which aims at reducing the dependence on single suppliers and greater reliance on neighbours, especially when faced with energy supply disruptions.

The clause also calls for greater transparency when EU member states negotiate energy deals with third countries.

The strategy aims to establish energy flows as a fifth freedom, along with the already existing free movement of goods, people, services and capital.

This will guarantee the free flow of energy across borders through enforcing rules in areas such as energy unbundling and independence of regulators.

It also foresees the redesign of the electricity market, which should be more inter-connected, more renewable and more responsive.

The strategy identifies energy efficiency as one of its priorities and calls for treating it as an energy source in its own right.

The ultimate goal is the transition to a low-carbon society and promotion of the EU's technological leadership.

The strategy ensures that citizens, who are at the core of the Energy Union, pay affordable and competitive prices and energy is secure and sustainable.

Apart from the strategy, the EC also adopted a communication setting out the measures needed to meet the target of 10 % electricity interconnection by 2020.

Another document that was adopted was the communication providing a vision for a global climate agreement in Paris in December.

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