Brussels, 21/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - After a most convincing hearing before the European Parliament's energy and environment committees in Strasbourg on Monday 21 October, outgoing inter-institutional affairs commissioner in the Barroso II Commission, Maros Sefcovic of Slovakia, was confirmed on Tuesday 21 October in the highly sensitive position of Vice-President and Commissioner for the Energy Union in the Juncker Commission. Sefcovic, who had already proved his worth for the transport portfolio, had his candidacy for the post initially proposed to Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek approved by consensus by both committees.
Sefcovic racked up points right from the start by quoting the original promoters of an energy union, former Commission President Jacques Delors and former European Parliament President and current chair of the energy committee Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland). “President Juncker has built on that vision in his own policy direction: building a stronger energy union containing a visionary climate policy. In his mission statement, Mr Juncker asks me to guide and coordinate key initiatives to achieve this vision. The EU has to address immediate challenges: ensuring its energy security in light of the Ukrainian crisis and tackling climate change. I am proud to have been entrusted with accomplishment of that task”, he stated. The Slovakian Social Democrat, whose university career took him to the former USSR at the time of perestroika, was unambiguous on relations with Russia. “Russia is using gas as a form of pressure and as a political weapon against Ukraine and against the countries that want to help it. That is politically unacceptable. I will accord the greatest importance to energy supply, always with European interests in mind”, he stressed. Sefcovic, a career diplomat, also showed himself determined to push the EU member states to abandon “going it alone” on energy policy. “The gas crisis can be mitigated if we work together and if we don't adopt a purely national attitude”, he argued. “Without solidarity and reverse flows, the consequences of the 2009 gas crisis would have been terrible. That is why we have a solemn duty to ensure that citizens do not find themselves once again in that situation”, he added.
His plan for the energy union is based on five pillars. The first, which he calls “security, solidarity and confidence”, seeks to put in place balanced market conditions and effective European diplomacy for external energy relations. He wants to promote a European debate on giving the Commission a mandate, on behalf of the EU, to negotiate agreements with non-EU supplier countries. He also wants to enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries to better integrate energy markets through the energy community, and he wants to explore the idea of joint gas purchases. Sefcovic argues, too, for diversification of sources and supply routes, highlighting the purchase of Norwegian gas and strengthening the Mediterranean platform. Answering Krisjanis Karins (EPP, Latvia), he showed himself to be fair-minded on South Stream. “This project is at a halt for good reason. It is a major project but we cannot accept that a company fails to abide by EU law. There has to be an unequivocal commitment to respect EU rules and to verify respect for the criterion of diversification of supply sources. This project fails to respect this criterion. We have to focus our support on the southern gas corridor, look towards Azerbaijan, and seek to open negotiations with new sources, like Turkmenistan”, he said.
The second pillar of his plan, completion of the internal market involves stronger cross-border flows, increased regional cooperation and better infrastructure. Sefcovic also highlighted the need to ensure affordable energy prices, both to maintain the competitiveness of industry and to take account of the needs of the most vulnerable consumers. He stressed the necessity of improving interconnections and of building smart networks, particularly to integrate renewable energies. The Juncker investment plan will be key to this. The third pillar, reducing energy demand will require increased energy efficiency: here Sefcovic gave his full support to a minimum binding objective of 30% and is looking, as his priority sectors, at buildings, transport and the eco-design of products. On decarbonising the energy mix, the fourth pillar, Sefcovic argues for an ambitious carbon emissions reduction target for 2030. Globally, he promises to back an ambitious, legally binding international agreement. “We only have one planet. Let's look after it”, he said. He also promised to ensure that the EU remains the world leader in renewables: an objective that will boost green industry and jobs. To this, Sefcovic closely links the fifth pillar of his plan, R&D on low carbon energy technologies, laying emphasis, for example, on carbon capture and storage technology and on second generation biofuels.
While Sefcovic's performance clearly convinced a large part of his audience, the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL Groups expressed reservations over some of his positions on climate, and the environment committee was also concerned at the lack of precision over whether it would be Sefcovic or the energy end climate commissioner, Miguel Arias Canete, who would be the EU's lead in talks on an international climate agreement in Paris in 2015. (EH)