EU Commission's Second Strategic Energy Review a welcome step toward joint
Northern European electricity market
The EU Commission has today published its Second Strategic Energy Review
concentrating on security of energy supply. It complements the earlier actions
to further improve the functioning of the internal energy market and climate
change mitigation. It also indicates the increasing role of the European Union
in the field of energy policies, which has earlier primarily lied in the hands
of the Member States.
Internal energy market necessary for achieving environmental and security of
supply targets
The review considers competitive internal energy market fundamental in achieving
the targets set for emission reductions, renewables and energy efficiency
contributing greatly to security of energy supply. No wonder, properly
functioning internal energy market and better interconnections between the
Member States is the number one target in the proposed EU Energy Security and
Solidarity Action Plan.
One of the basic ideas of the EU - internal market - should be properly put into
practice also in the field of electricity and gas. This should also be reflected
in political decision making, as unified actions are much more effective than
dispersed national actions in order to meet the energy and climate challenges.
The Commission has identified interconnection of the Baltic countries into EU's
other electricity networks as one of Community priorities. This is welcome
development creating a concrete step towards a joint Northern European
electricity market covering all the countries around the Baltic Sea.
Vision for 2050: decarbonised EU electricity supply
The review includes also first elements for Union's energy vision for 2050.
These include, among other things, decarbonising the EU electricity supply by
2050 via energy efficiency, renewable and nuclear energy as well as carbon
capture and storage. It also aims to end oil dependency in transport by
promoting, or even obliging, the use of vehicles fuelled by electricity, bio
fuels and hydrogen.
The timing of the review is very important due to financial turmoil. It will
also give guidance for the energy policy agenda of the new Commission to be
elected after the EU Parliament elections in June 2009.
Fortum Corporation
Corporate Communications
Further information: Esa Hyvärinen, Vice President, Public Affairs, Fortum
Corporation, +358 40 826 2646