Brussels, 06/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - Although the Belgian Presidency reports that the Energy Council lent its “broad support” to the new common energy strategy 2020 proposed in early November by the European Commission, the EU27 did not hide their differences of opinion over the issue of the funding of the €1000 billion needed over the next 10 years to modernise and reinforce the network energy infrastructure and capacities in the EU. The economic crisis seems to have taken the upper hand over solidarity. Presenting his strategy to the ministers on Friday 3 December, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger sent out a further warning to the capitals: in the case of gas and electricity infrastructure, “we are back in the 19th century, we need to inject some money”. Although, during the first exchange of views, the poorest member states and the remotest regions of Europe stressed the importance of Community financial support to reinforce infrastructure, the richest countries, which will have to pick up the tab, were much less keen. Germany, France and the Netherlands criticised the idea of Community funding, stressing that the market and industry should pay. For their part, agreeing with Slovakia, which stressed that the market alone was not enough to make the necessary investments, Cyprus, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and Portugal stressed the need for decisions in support of new infrastructures to take account of the needs of the least-favoured regions and the isolated regions in the name of solidarity between the member states. The gulf in the Council over this issue makes it likely that there will be lively debates at the European Council on energy, which will tackle this dossier on 4 February 2011. (E.H./transl.fl)