Brussels, 16/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 18 December, the European Council will provide orientations on the future work at European level on the climate, energy and the single market.
Unsurprisingly, the heads of state or government will welcome the Paris Agreement sealed at the UN conference COP 21, “the first-ever global and legally-binding climate agreement with the aim to put it back on track to limit global warming to well below 2°C” (see other article and EUROPE 11452). They will call upon the European Commission and the Council of the EU to “assess” this agreement by “March 2016”, according to draft conclusions dated Monday 14 December and of which EUROPE has had sight.
Energy. The European leaders will call upon the Commission for the “swift” submission of legislative proposals to make the Energy Union project a reality, fully to implement the legislation on energy efficiency to comply with the target laid down for 2020 and projects to reinforce energy interconnection and security.
Several countries of central and eastern Europe wanted to include a reference to the Nord Stream 2 dossier, the name of the Russian project to double the capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which has linked Russia to Germany since 2012 under the Baltic Sea (see EUROPE 11448). “I expect the summit to confirm the principles on which the Energy Union is based, particularly the fact that any new infrastructure should fully comply with the third legislative package on energy and any other applicable European legislation”, a senior European official said on Wednesday 16 December.
Single market. The Twenty-Eight will also discuss the deepening of the single market, “the principal driver of Europe for growth and job creation”. They will call for the immediate application of the roadmap on the strategy for the single market presented by the Commission in October (see EUROPE 11417 and 11454). The United Kingdom, which supports strong liberalisation of the single market, will have a particularly offensive stance on this issue. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Pascal Hansens)