Brussels, 20/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Vice President of the Commission in charge of Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, informed the European Parliament on Monday 26 January, that he would unveil his proposals to build the Energy Union project, at the end of February. He promised to provide a strategic framework with a roadmap for its implementation, as well as a plan for enhancing cross-border interconnections and a roadmap for the UN climate conference at the end of this year.
During the special energy committee meeting, chaired by Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland), Sefcovic explained “with the Energy Union, we can make a great leap forward. It's up to us to seize this opportunity. We need to recognise that our current energy policy is unsustainable. It is subject to short-term speculation and long-term unpredictability. It makes us vulnerable to suppliers that use energy as a weapon and threaten cuts in supplies. We also suffer from an internal energy market that is too fragmented”.
Sefcovic pointed out that the Energy Union project is based on five pillars: strengthening energy security and solidarity, including the pooling of resources, common gas purchases, increased transparency regarding individual agreements between member states and third country suppliers, as well as enhanced energy diplomacy; completion of the internal market; energy demand moderation and energy efficiency, decarbonisation of the EU's energy cluster and research and innovation. (EH)