EN - European Parliament - ITRE Committee on Industry, Research and Energy - Creation of a European Energy Union, Presentation by Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Energy Union: opening remarks - 26.01.2015 - European Parliament, Brussels. Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Energy Union: "President Buzek, Honourable Members, thank you for welcoming me in Parliament today during this Extraordinary ITRE Committee Meeting and for the strong interest in the Energy Union project expressed by many of you. Establishing the Energy Union is one of the top priorities of the Juncker Commission, and I am glad that I can briefly present some of the ideas on which we are currently working. But more importantly, I am here to listen and take note of your priorities, your concerns, and your ideas. Some of you are preparing a written position, others will no doubt contact me to share their ideas orally. Our meeting today is very timely, just a couple of weeks before we intend to finalize the text. I am very much looking forward to our discussion after my short introduction. Honourable Members, friends, the current Commission started with a promise to be different: to be "bigger on big things". The 'big things' we are targeting are those policies which truly have a profound impact on the lives of citizens across the EU. It is about ensuring that house heating prices are affordable to all and remain stable regardless of geopolitical instabilities around the world. It is about ensuring that our companies, including our Small and Medium Enterprises, can buy their energy at competitive prices and be engines of growth and the much-needed jobs of the future. It is about ensuring that a great mind from Helsinki or Porto can make her scientific breakthrough in renewable energies here in Europe rather than go to the US or China, making Europe a leader in this field. It is about guaranteeing that my children in Bratislava, and all of our children across Europe, and the children of their children, never need to pay the price for the environmental mistakes of their preceding generations. These objectives may sound ambitious. But they are attainable. Right now, the political climate is there to set the Energy Union in motion. The current geopolitical situation on our eastern border - however unfortunate in itself - has put Europe's energy security even higher on the agenda. The European Council agreement on the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework has opened the door for an ambitious agreement in Paris, and other political leaders around the world are finally showing responsibility and readiness to also engage in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. And we have a new Commission that will push for a resilient Energy Union with a forward looking climate change policy. The Juncker Investment Plan, designed to unlock the financial means the energy sector really needs, illustrates this determination. This is our chance to make it happen! This is the time to make a big leap forward! We must seize this opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, despite the important progress made in recent years (...), our current energy policies are unsustainable in every sense of the term. Oil prices are highly volatile, causing speculations in the short-term and unpredictability in the longer-term. The fact that most of our energy comes from outside the EU, notably from a few countries which use their energy supply as a political bargain puts us at constant risk for disruptions. Our energy system is fragmented into 28 national silos and some parts of our continent are still insufficiently integrated in the energy system. Like many in Europe we will sleep in our warm homes tonight, while an unacceptably high number of European households will not be warm enough, simply because their residents cannot afford proper heating. Ladies and gentlemen, 10% of our households is energy-poor! But it's not only about home consumers. EU companies are facing gas prices which are no less than 3 x higher than those enjoyed by their US counterparts. (...) And when talking about our industry: among the top 10 solar energy companies, none is European. Still too much energy is wasted, and we have not yet built the low-carbon economy and society that is there to last (...) (...) 5 main mutually-reinforcing and closely interrelated dimensions. By the end of February, we will propose concrete actions for each of them. 1. Enhancing our supply security, based on solidarity and trust. (...) 2. Building a single internal energy market which is highly competitive. (...) 3. Increasing energy efficiency. (...) 4. Reducing energy production pollution by decarbonising our economies. (...) 5. Boosting renewable energies by investing in research and innovation. (...)" (Applause) Full text: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-15-3700_en.htm?locale=en © Frédérick Moulin 2015 - EU2015 - EP - All rights reserved.

• published: 28 Jan 2015
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