José Manuel Durão Barroso, Voorzitter van de Europese Commissie, naar een nieuwe Toekomst van de Energie (en)

José Manuel Durão Barroso

President of the European Commission

Towards a new Energy Future: Showing Solidarity and embracing our inter-dependence

Energy Summit – Natural Gas for Europe: Security and Partnership

Sofia, 24 April 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests.

I congratulate President Parvanov for this excellent initiative.

This issue of energy security is at the top of the EU's political agenda. Particularly since January, this has moved from being a rather theoretical concern of experts to an issue of practical concern to EU citizens.

I am talking of course about the gas crisis, which had particular impact here in Bulgaria.

Much has been written about that crisis, but I think it is important to recognise that the EU’s goal was very simple: to restore a reliable supply of gas. On 7 January this year, six of our Member States – and indeed six more non-EU countries – found their gas supply either totally cut off or significantly reduced. Some of our citizens, including here in Bulgaria, were left (in sub-zero temperatures) without gas to heat their homes. This is wholly unacceptable. It took a whirlwind of diplomacy, in which I myself was very much involved, to restore the supply.

However, I am proud of the way the European Union handled the crisis. Member States showed crucial unity - speaking with one voice – and showing solidarity to each other and to affected countries outside the EU.

I make no apology for beginning my remarks with this episode, because again, we have to address the concerns of our EU citizens. And now we must look to the future, and ensure that this does not happen again. We are looking to Russia and Ukraine to restore the confidence of industry and consumers which was lost during the crisis.

And what about the EU? Although we performed well during the crisis, we can and must do better on energy security. The EU's 20-20-20 strategy is the right direction to go in because action on climate change reinforces action on energy security, and vice versa. Liberalising our energy markets, as we have done in the 3rd internal market package, is also a key element. And I welcome the final adoption this week of both the internal energy package and the climate/energy package. The Commission's Strategic Energy Review, endorsed by the European Council in March, sets out other necessary actions.

A key example is the generation of improved crisis prevention and response mechanisms. Because we are serious about solidarity, we want to make sure that we have the practical means to make it a reality. So, we will promote more diverse supply connections to allow flexible sourcing of those in need - either from liquefied natural gas or from neighbouring providers in EU's internal market. We are already bringing some of these inter-connection projects to reality through the 3.75 billion allocated to energy projects in the European Economic Recovery Plan which will help to enhance Bulgaria's energy security, and that of its neighbours.

We also need better use of the EU's indigenous energy reserves, including renewable energy, carbon capture and storage and (for those Member States who choose this route) nuclear power;

And of course we need a new impetus on energy efficiency principles for buildings, new products, and co-generation.

The Strategic Energy Review also identifies a number of infrastructure priorities to achieve the three goals set by the European Council: diversification of energy supply routes, sources and suppliers. One of these priorities of course concerns the Southern Gas Corridor, the subject of many conferences this year – including here in Sofia! So I am keen to see the work on this advance rapidly.

Finally, the Strategic Energy Review underlined the need to give energy the priority it deserves in the EU's international relations, including its trade policy and agreements, its bilateral partnerships, and so on.

There is much talk about the EU's dependence on energy imports. But, in fact, all of us, consuming, producing and transiting countries alike, are becoming more and more dependent on each other: security of supply is important for us, but other countries seek security of demand. This is the age of energy inter-dependence.

The Energy Community is already building an integrated market in South East Europe anchored to the EU. It would be greatly strengthened by Ukrainian accession. We urge Ukraine to take the necessary steps to allow this.

We also hope that there will be robust provisions on energy in the new EU-Russia Agreement, and look forward to discussing these issues with Russia at the upcoming Summit in May.

And we plan to develop a similar approach with the countries of the Caspian region – both through the Baku process and a new generation of energy inter-dependence provisions in our broad-based agreements.

So, we must not view the future as a trial of strength. Of course, inter-dependence does not mean identical interests. But I do believe that our interests are in fact complementary. Far from being at odds with each other, interdependence means that we have a clear interest in working together, bringing benefits both to the EU and countries outside the European Union.

In the meantime, let's build on the notion of solidarity from last January. Of course, our aim is to prevent crises from happening in the first place. But, if they do occur, we need both the political will – and the technical means – to help each other out.

Here in Bulgaria, in concrete terms, that means that we need to build and modernise infrastructure and interconnectors. The January episode, in which Bulgaria was cut off from the rest of Europe, must not be repeated. The European Union is investing heavily in Bulgaria's European energy future so that the full benefits of membership can be enjoyed by Bulgarian citizens.

So energy security – perhaps I can call it energy solidarity – should not stop at the national border – or indeed the EU frontier. We will do everything we can to give practical expression to this important concept.