EU moves toward single energy policy

THE European Union took its first step towards creating a single energy policy last night but countries made it clear there are limits to how far they will cooperate.

Ireland, which imports 90% of its energy needs and is the EU’s most dependent member, is to publish its own energy policy in the next few months, Finance Minister Brian Cowen confirmed.

A plan to replace the 25 national energy policies with one under the eye of a European Regulator met with a lukewarm reception in Brussels last night.

Member states agreed they need to create cheaper, more sustainable energy such as bio-mass and to diversify their sources of fossil fuels. But setting targets such as increasing renewable energy from 5% to 15% by 2020 upset some countries.

The member states agree it is important to find other suppliers of fossil fuel that will break the growing dependency on Russia for natural gas.

One of the major steps towards creating a single energy market is to open up electricity and gas markets to competition. This has created a split in the EU.

National governments retain control of energy creation and distribution but agreed three years ago to give consumers a choice next year. This has sparked a rush of energy companies trying to take over would be competitors in other countries, such as German giant E.ON’s hostile takeover bid for Endesa in Spain.

Avril Doyle MEP, the only Irish MEP on the European Parliament’s Energy Committee, said that in just 15 years Ireland has gone from 65% dependency on imported energy to over 90%. This compares to 50% for the EU as a whole.

“We are now critically dependent on imported energy. Our indigenous fossil fuel supplies - peat and natural gas - have been rapidly depleting since 1995 while record economic and industrial growth has pushed up demand,” she told the EU Parliament yesterday.

Mr Cowan said Ireland’s prosperity has been thanks to an open Europe with its common market and huge consumer base.

For the first time the social partners representing workers and employers attended the start of the meeting. But when the French head of the business body UNICE, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, began to speak in English saying it was the language of business, French President Jacques Chirac walked out in protest with his Finance and Foreign Ministers.