Energy issues will define the politics of the 21st century. Knowing that energy could become a really scarce good in a growing world economy, the battle for energy may even become a matter of survival, of war and peace.

However, history is not a fate, but man made. The art of politics is to deal with such challenges. That is why it is so important to reflect upon the subject,
as in this issue of Les Dossiers Européens.

Europe is in a vulnerable position, due to our huge energy import dependency. If nothing changes, our import dependency in 2030 will be 70 percent. However, we are not the only ones on the world stage in that position. And moreover, we are working hard on different fronts to change it!

The Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union have provided some clarity as regards the external representation of the Union and its coherence and consistency. The Treaties also define the Union’s competencies for energy, with four priorities, namely the functioning of the internal market, security of supply, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the interconnection of networks. This is quite a list.

And yet, the Treaties allow the Member States a great deal of discretion both on their choice of energy mix and on the conduct of their external relations. The challenge for European governance is therefore to be consistent, both within the EU and in relations with the outside world. The internal challenge: how to plan, finance and construct energy networks which allow the 27 Member States to benefit from the most effective use of production capacities and of European or imported resources (from coal to wind power, via nuclear power and gas), when national energy priorities are different?
The external challenge: how to reconcile the freedom to conclude bilateral supply contracts with third countries with membership of one single energy market?

Now, just as the Union is not just a single market, but is based on a set of values (the rule of law, multilateralism, human rights, and so on), energy policy must also reflect those values, and especially solidarity.
Facing these questions it is natural that the European Council on 4 February when defining its energy policy guidelines for the decade, emphasised solidarity and consistency: solidarity in deciding that no Member State should remain isolated from European energy networks after 2015, solidarity in the financing of projects which market forces alone would not facilitate, solidarity through cooperation on renewable energy, consistency in defining gas and electricity networks, and consistency in external action.

Beyond the European Council, these guidelines identify the actors involved in governance: regulators, network managers, Member States. To those one must ad the final consumer, on two grounds. First, in due course consumers will play a major role in managing energy flows (by the deployment of smart meters and smart grids). Also, they determine the public’s acceptance both of energy infrastructure and of the new technologies (for example carbon capture and storage) which will have to be implemented to achieve the Union’s energy security and climate change objectives of.

However, energy policy also entails governance by the Union, in three respects.
The first is by the widening of the scope of the rules of the internal market to the countries of the Energy Community in the Western Balkans, recently joined by Ukraine. The second is by the whole set of its relations with producer, consumer and transit countries, where the Union and its Member States are working to convince their partners that applying the principles of energy security (market rules, regulation, good governance and so on) allow the more effective or more equitable use of resources.

Thus on 4 February the European Council decided to accelerate the establishment of such a partnership with Russia in the energy sector. Finally, by their action within international organisations such as the International Energy Agency, the Union and its Member States are promoting governance in a form which favours greater energy security. It is clear that a European governance model will be credible only if the Union and its Member States establish consistent positions. The Southern Gas Corridor is a case in point: with gas from the Caspian and Central Asia. only action at a European level can lead to operational consistency between the different projects which may come to supply the Union European governance therefore appears as the whole set of mechanisms and actors who, within the European area, show consistency and solidarity in addressing energy questions, so as to ensure a safe and affordable energy supply.

Herman VAN ROMPUY
President of the European Council