Energy Union: secure, sustainable, competitive, affordable energy for every European

EU News 45/2015

Brussels, 25 February 2015
IP/15/4497

Energy is used to heat and to cool buildings and homes, transport goods, and power the economy. But with ageing infrastructure, poorly integrated markets, and uncoordinated policies, our consumers, households and businesses do not benefit from increased choice or from lower energy prices. It is time to complete the single energy market in Europe. Delivering on this top priority set out in President Juncker's political guidelines, today the European Commission sets out its strategy to achieve a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy.

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What has been adopted today

• A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy. This sets out, in five interrelated policy dimensions, the goals of an energy union – and the detailed steps the Juncker Commission will take to achieve it, including new legislation to redesign and overhaul the electricity market, ensuring more transparency in gas contracts, substantially developing regional cooperation as an important step towards an integrated market, with a stronger regulated framework, new legislation to ensure the supply for electricity and gas, increased EU funding for energy efficiency or a new renewables energy package, focusing European R&I energy strategy, reporting annually on the 'State of the Energy Union', just to name a few.

• An Interconnection Communication, setting out the measures needed to achieve the target of 10% electricity interconnection by 2020, which is the minimum necessary for the electricity to flow and be traded between Member States. It shows which Member States currently meet the target - and which projects are necessary to close the gap by 2020.

• A Communication setting out a vision for a global climate agreement in Paris in December. The vision is for a transparent, dynamic and legally binding global agreement with fair and ambitious commitments from all parties. The Communication also translates the decisions taken at the European Summit in October 2014 into the EU's proposed emissions reduction target (the so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, or INDC) for the new agreement.

Source and additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4497_en.htm

Towards an Energy Union (C)EU, 2015 URL

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