Brussels, 04/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday 4 September European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and his colleague at Energy Andris Piebalgs met the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Nobuo Tanaka. They were pleased to receive a favourable opinion from the IEA in its assessment of the EU energy policies, the first of which was published this week, on the energy and climate change proposals presented by the Commission in 2007. “With its wide effect and political importance, this report is very helpful for the Commission. It shows clearly that the EU is now recognised as a single entity in its own right in the area of energy,” said Piebalgs. Welcoming the “coherent” approach adopted by the EU on energy and climate change, the IEA report also approves the measures proposed in the 3rd package for the liberalisation of the internal gas and electricity market. It encourages the Commission to continue its work towards ownership unbundling of production/supply and transport/network activities of energy operators and makes recommendations to increase R&D funding on energy and put in place a more coherent external energy policy. (E.H./transl.rt)