At Energy Day 2024, an event organised by the Polish Electricity Association (PKEE) on Monday 9 December in Brussels, ahead of the start of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council on 1 January 2025, members of the Polish government and the European Commission agreed on the importance of ensuring secure energy supplies and lower costs for energy consumers.
With regard to supplies, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, Poland’s Minister of Climate and Environment, said that it was urgent to “close EU markets to Russian fossil fuels” and hoped that this could be done “in the next few months”. She also called for continued assistance to Ukraine in dealing with targeted attacks on its energy infrastructure.
At the same time, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, Director-General of DG ENER at the European Commission, recalled that Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen will be presenting a roadmap to put an end to Russian fossil fuel imports (see EUROPE 13506/12).
More generally, she welcomed the fact that the priorities put forward by the Polish Presidency coincide with the priorities of the new Commission, which is starting its work programme at the same time as that of the Presidency.
Industrial competitiveness. While energy security is at the top of the list of priorities for the Polish Presidency - which also intends to look at strengthening security in a range of other areas - the competitiveness of energy prices for European households and industry will also be an integral part of the discussions.
As explained by the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, Europe is facing the consequences of a number of “strategic errors”: - dependence on Russia for its natural gas supplies; - disinvestment in the nuclear energy sector; - loss of leadership in photovoltaic solar energy.
Investment in clean technologies. Referring to Mario Draghi’s report on competitiveness, Mr Birol called on the EU to come up with a solid plan, expected in the first 100 days of the new Commission under the title ‘Clean Industrial Deal’, which he said should include a strategy to close the cost gap with other industrialised economies, encourage the retention of existing industries and focus on certain targeted technologies.
“We know that the next chapter of the manufacturing industry belongs to clean energy technologies. (...) Europe needs to do a better job of analysing in which of these technologies it could be a major player (...), because we are not in a favourable situation today”, he acknowledged.
In his view, the sectors in which Europe will be able to prove itself competitive are offshore wind energy, transformers for grids, heat pumps and electrolysers.
In the same vein, Nicola Pochettino, Director of Energy at the European Investment Bank (EIB), reiterated the EIB’s support for EU leadership in green technologies, recognising “the need for a risk-sharing mechanism” to unlock private investment.
“As clean energy becomes the main energy carrier, the EIB can play an important role in reducing the capital cost of clean technologies”, he said. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)