Just as the UK continues to review its own energy agenda, the European Commission has published its own Green Paper on a Secure, Competitive and Sustainable Energy Policy for Europe. The EC president, Jose Manuel Barroso has said that it is vital for EU leaders to abandon their 25 different and uncoordinated energy policies and speak with one voice. Whilst emphasising that certain areas of energy policy, including fuel mix, would remain an area for individual states, the paper has called for greater degrees of coordination in others.

Europe’s increasing dependency on imported fuels sees the paper call for legislation on oil and gas stocks to ensure an emergency stockpile as well as a mechanism to ensure a rapid response to supply emergencies; new infrastructure such as storage, pipelines and terminals, and a long term partnership with Russia potentially involving long term supply contracts in return for opening up the EU retail market to Russian players. In addition, with resistance still being seen in liberalising the European energy markets (such as some governments taking steps to prevent unwelcome foreign takeovers) and progress on standardising cross-border trade acknowledged as being too slow, the paper proposes a new energy regulator to complete the EU’s internal energy market and an integrated European electricity grid code to encourage harmonised grid access conditions.

The paper is due to be debated by energy ministers next week and then at the EU’s spring summit on 23 and 24 March. Based on the feedback received, the Commission would then propose more concrete actions. These in turn will have to be approved by member states of the European Parliament – so we could be watching this space for a long time.