Energy security in EU would be helped by a single voice

The European Commission has put consumer choice, fairer prices, cleaner energy and security of supply at the centre of its energy policy (photo: dpa)

General info

Location

Russia

Date

30 January 2012

Contains

Report Scenarios

Tags

climate change energy security foreign policy

Author

Dr. Frank Umbach

Dr. Frank Umbach is the research director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at King’s College, London; adjunct senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyan Technological University (NTU) in Singapore; senior ...

European Union countries are becoming more dependent on foreign energy imports, but bilateral agreements between some of the larger member states are undermining the bargaining power of the EU to strike deals which would ensure energy security for all its states. This special report, the first of two, looks at the background to the European Commission’s new strategy which aims to strengthen the EU's global position by speaking with one voice.

A KEY challenge for the European Union - and all nations - is the rapidly changing global energy market.

The European Commission warned in its first Green Paper in November, 2000, that in the next 20-30 years ...