EU Energy Policy Blog

In the current context, where public budgets are overstretched due to the economic crisis, there is a pressing need to understand the fiscal implications of climate policies. Decarbonization will impact both sides of a country’s budget via changes in the tax levels and composition of taxes on the one hand, as well as transfer payments and direct investments on the other. Climate policies increasing public revenues could help to reduce state debt, while policies significantly increasing public expenses could be difficult to implement.
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On 22 June 2011, a proposal for increased Energy Efficiency was presented by the European Commission. The energy efficiency directive was intensely negotiated and faced strong internal opposition from a number of players. DG Climate officials have shared their concerns with the public.
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The discussion on a target model for European gas network access has been going on for a while now,officially starting with the conclusion of the 18th Madrid Forum in 2010 which invited ““the Commission and the regulators to explore, in close cooperation with system operators and other stakeholders, the interaction and interdependence of all relevant areas for network codes and to initiate a process establishing a gas market target model””.
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A few years ago I had the good fortune to participate in a European Commission sixth Framework Programme project Coordinating Energy Security in Supply Activities or ‘CESSA’ for short. This project culminated in a book published by Routledge in 2010 entitled: Security of Energy Supply in Europe: Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Hydrogen. I was very pleased to be an editor of that book and to be the author of chapter 8 entitled: Nuclear Energy in the Enlarged European Union. Continue reading »

Several EU member states are already taking their first steps on the path towards 2050. The Danish, German, and Irish governments have explored the policy options but the resulting strategies have not yet been legislated. In Finland, France, and the UK, a legal commitment has already been reached. The UK is the only member state that has reached the implementation stage of its legally binding 2050 strategy.
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What would be the impacts of the Fukushima accident on the European-Union (EU) outlook for nuclear energy by 2020 and 2050? The EU, with one third (143) of the world NPPs, had before Fukushima about 20 new NPPs planned by 2020, including 4 NPPs currently under construction.

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The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Annual Energy Outlook, released in April 2011, not only offers the usual reams of information and data, but also a number of useful insights that are sometimes lost in such bulky documents. The overall message, however, resonates with a number of other recent reports and studies, all – more or less – coming to the same conclusions.
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Reacting to the Fukushima nuclear disaster the German government has decided to phase out nuclear power in Germany. The seven oldest of the 17 reactors that were temporarily shutdown in a 3-months “moratorium” will not be restarted again but closed down for good. The remaining 10 reactors will be run down within the next decade according to a predefined timetable that leaves no place for reopening the debate. It is one of the peculiarities of history that the center-right government of Chancellor Mrs. Merkel is thus implementing a decision taken under the social democratic-green coalition a decade ago that it had try to reverse only six months ago…
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Over the past five years, progress towards an EU energy policy has been impressive and seemed unstoppable. Numerous new initiatives have been launched by the European Commission including proposals for an energy strategy for the period until 2020, infrastructure development and energy efficiency, to name but a few. The European Council, on 4 February 2011, finally made a first step to align member states’ and EU energy policies when it “invited” member states to “inform” the European Commission of “all their new and existing bilateral energy agreements with third countries”. While this is not yet a compatibility test of member states’ agreements with EU objectives, it is a first step in this direction. As soon as the tragic events of Fukushima unfolded, the apparent consensus disappeared and the shortcomings of the current EU energy policy framework became evident.
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The debate over the future of nuclear energy must not be confined to experts, nor to politicians and business leaders. This is a crucial choice for the future of our societies, and it calls for a public debate. The debate must be transparent and enlightened, and it must place in perspective the advantages and risks of nuclear energy in order that every person is able to make an informed opinion.
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