Brussels, 09/05/2017 (Agence Europe) - At the seventh joint Energy Council in Washington on Wednesday 4 May, the EU and the United States reaffirmed, at ministerial level, their commitment to reinforce their energy security, reiterating their support for the pan-European Southern Gas Corridor project, and for Ukraine and Moldova.
“Energy security, through access to reliable, affordable, diversified, efficient and sustainable energy in the United States and Europe, remains a fundamental objective”, reads the joint statement published after the meeting and signed by the two delegations, led by the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, and the American Secretary of State, John Kerry.
“It is unacceptable to use energy as a political weapon”, the two partners repeated, stressing, in a scarcely veiled message to Russia, their commitment to work together to improve the diversity of supply in the EU and its neighbour countries.
The EU/US Energy Council encouraged the efforts of the EU to implement common EU infrastructure projects, particularly in Central and Southeast Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic Sea region and the Mediterranean.
With regard to this, the two sides agreed that any new infrastructure should fully comply with the third energy package and the objectives of the Energy Union.
The EU/US Energy Council also reiterated its “strong support” for the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor, including the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) - and underscored the importance of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector and the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in Croatia and Greece. “The above-mentioned infrastructure improvements would play a critical role in bringing alternative gas supplies into the Southeast and Central European region”, the statement stresses.
Reiterating their commitment to the principles of the G7 regarding energy security agreed upon at the summits of Brussels (2014) and Elmau (2015), the EU and the United States also reiterated their commitment to support the energy sector in Ukraine, Moldova and “other vulnerable countries”. Guaranteeing the energy security of these countries “remains a key priority”, they stressed. The EU/US Energy Council also highlighted Ukraine's role as an “important” natural gas transit country for the EU and reaffirmed its support for the ongoing reform of the energy sector of the country.
Showing clearly that, overall, the current transatlantic strategy aims to isolate Russia, the parties also stressed the potential of new gas resources in the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea basin, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean to boost the energy security of the EU and the region.
Bilaterally, the EU and the United States agreed to step up their regulatory cooperation to boost the transparency, openness and liquidity of the global markets, welcoming the work underway between their regulatory agencies, ACER and FERC, to supervise the wholesale markets.
In this context, the ministers took note of progress in negotiations towards an EU/United States free-trade agreement (TTIP), highlighting the potential of the future agreement to improve cooperation on technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment, and to promote free trade in energy and low-carbon technologies.
The ministers welcomed the lifting of the American restrictions on exports of crude oil in 2015 and the start of exports of LNG to the US from the Gulf Coast in 2016.
The EU and the US also reiterated their commitment to promote and implement the highest levels of nuclear safety standards and reiterated the key role of the IAEA.
The EU/US Energy Council also recognised the cyber-security threat to energy infrastructure in the United States and in Europe and welcomed the efforts made at the level of the Energy G7 to move forward cooperation with universities, research institutes and the private sector to promote the development of resilient energy systems able to respond to this threat.
Finally, the EU/US Council undertook to work together to speed up access to renewable energies in Africa and other developing regions.
The EU/US Energy Council, which was set up in 2009, aims to promote transatlantic cooperation, good governance and transparency in the field of energy. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)