Energy and foreign policy. Tackling energy means being in it for the long haul. It can take years and years for a project to come to fruition - think of Nabucco or the trials and tribulations of the future of nuclear energy. In third countries, the responsible authorities come and go - a state may have radically changed its political identity before a project decided on by its predecessors starts to take shape. Choices and preferences evolve within the EU itself (for example, the German stance on nuclear energy) and, in particular, Europe's reliance on external supply requires permanent negotiations with the supplier countries, irrespective of their internal developments. In the absence of a European energy policy covering external relations, these negotiations largely evade the sectorial Community authorities; the energy policy represents a key pillar of the foreign policy of the EU; the Energy Council cannot manage and decide on everything itself.
Do we really need to quote any current or recent examples? The foreign affairs ministers shaped the EU's attitude to Iranian oil, in response to Tehran's attitude regarding the development of its nuclear sector. Supplies of Libyan or Algerian oil are linked to the EU's relations with the countries of the Arab Spring and the neighbouring countries. Obstacles to a trilateral EU-Russia-Ukraine agreement governing supplies of Russian gas depend more on the fate of Yulia Tymoshenko than on any technical obstacles or issues. On top of political fluctuations which go beyond the competences of the energy ministers (and of the European commissioner responsible for this sector) come other issues involving different areas of competence - for example, the EU's attitude to imports of shale gas from Canada is a matter for the Environment Council (which will meet in June and take position by majority) and many aspects come under the common agricultural policy or influence climate change and the environment. The energy policy is not sectorial, it needs to be global.
The European Council should make its presence felt. The above explains and justifies the initiative of Jacques Delors in favour of creating a European Energy Community, which would be responsible for all aspects currently scattered between multiple, and sometimes contradictory, responsibilities. But the energy community is not a project that can be played by ear - it is a hypothetical situation for the future. In the meantime, the member states need to get into the habit of discussing, up to the very highest levels, the vital orientations of the European energy policy. A few vague sentences shoved into the Conclusions of the European Council won't create a policy of this kind. The draft conclusions of the summit this Thursday and Friday include a short paragraph calling for the energy efficiency directive (which is subject to the scrutiny of the European Parliament, where a compromise has just been reached) to be approved by June and recommend that progress be made quickly towards a low-carbon economy. That is all. Notwithstanding a miracle at the 11th hour, the heads of state or government will avoid taking position on the questions pending and developments underway, regarding such matters as Germany's decision not to use nuclear energy and other issues of the same scope - regarding which there are differences of opinion.
Competences to be clarified, rivalries to be overcome, cooperation to be strengthened. The rows over the respective competences of the European Commission and the member states (meeting within the Council or otherwise) must be sorted out. The EU must bring uniform responses to joint problems, irrespective of whether they are technical (for example the issue of offshore wind farms, where abuses and speculation exist), political or of any other kind. The Commission and the member states must define clear orientations, which must stay the same irrespective of whether the Council discussing them is competent for energy, agriculture or the environment, without of course forgetting external relations.
At first sight, I am just stating the obvious here; but some of the stances taken by the energy commissioner or some or other of the member states go to show that a European energy policy does not exist, despite progress on the single market aspects of it.
As for relations with the third countries which provide us with oil and/or gas, the autonomous initiatives and positions of the member states or competent national bodies continue; in many cases, it is more a matter of rivalry than of cooperation.
(FR/transl.fl)