The European Union is very dependent on its neighboring countries for energy. We import over 60 percent of our gas, mostly from our neighborhood. Not only will these imports grow as our own production decreases, but our neighbors have also a huge potential for the production of renewable energy. As import-dependence grows in the next decades; our neighbors will play an increasingly important role in ensuring the supply and transit of energy to the EU. We are as much affected by the level of environmental protection, safety and sustainability that is pursued beyond our borders as by our own rules. Unsustainable energy systems, from an environmental or financial point of view, have a direct impact on the EU.
We recognise this interdependence, and we see it as the fundament for a comprehensive architecture of partnership and cooperation that the EU and its neighbors should loose no time to develop. As a first step, the European Commission has therefore decided to propose a strategy for the EU’s external relations in energy. Alongside improving our internal cohesion and coordination in this field, the strategy identifies stable and long-term partnerships with countries both to EU’s East and South as a key priority.
Our aim is to create an integrated energy market that includes the EU’s wider neighborhood, based on a comparable set of rules, while respecting our neighbors specific needs and priorities. This includes expanding and diversifying links between our own energy infrastructure network and that of neighbouring countries.
We intend to work closer on implementing and developing real markets and the Energy Community Treaty is also expanding to take in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
We have a lot to offer to our neighbors. An internal market of some 500 million consumers, a world-leading energy technology industry, cutting-edge research in renewable energy, stable, transparent and legally binding energy policy framework. This means that our partners can gain from cooperating with the EU just as much as we can.
The benefits extend beyond the energy field. Energy is the lifeblood of modern society and has a major role in sustainable and inclusive economic development.
It is evident that our cooperation has to reflect the realities of each particular partner and should address a wide range of topics – from regulatory cooperation to market transparency, from hydrocarbons to energy efficiency, from sustainable energy to research and innovation.
In other words, what we propose this week is to steer clear of relationships that focus exclusively on supply of energy, insisting instead on creating comprehensive and mutually beneficial partnerships.
This is the only way to proceed in the already interlinked energy reality that we operate in and the only way to ensure that the region comprising the EU and its neighbors moves toward a more sustainable, secure and safe energy future.
Guenther Oettinger is the EU Commissioner for Energy; Stefan Fuele is the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy
