Roundup: European leaders agree to create energy union

European leaders on Thursday agreed to create an Energy Union during a summit meeting in Brussels and set out the first steps by accelerating the connection of national pipelines and electricity grids.

"Much of our discussion this time focused on energy security. The European Union depends more and more on gas from external suppliers," Tusk said at the press conference.

He noted that most bilateral contracts with EU's dominant supplier, Russia, were concluded on a long term basis, sometimes more than 20 years.

"That can be unhealthy both for our security, and for our market," said Tusk.

According to the European Commission, in 2014, the EU imported 53 percent of its energy at a cost of around 400 billion euros (about 424 billion U.S. dollars), which makes it the largest energy importer in the world. Six member states depended on a single external supplier for their entire gas imports and therefore remain "too vulnerable" to supply shocks.

"Where gas is imported from different sources and contracts are flexible, things are fine. Gas contracts should be about the economy, about business. They should not be used as political weapons," Tusk said.

Tusk underlined that the EU leaders on this summit have decided that all gas contracts, between governments or businesses, "must be in line with EU law", "must be more transparent" and should not negatively impact Europe's energy security.

"The transparency of the gas contract was the most controversial and most interesting part of our discussion," Tusk said.

"When it comes to energy security, all of the member states are ready to coordinate or cooperate with the Commission to be sure gas contract are secure for Europe and in line with European laws, so it's not an empty conclusion, "he added.

"The Energy Union is one of the priorities of the Commission which I announced to the European Parliament last July, we have more than one billion energy products imported per day, so you can see we need to put an end the total dependence on a supplier of third countries," said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the same press conference.

On the common gas purchasing policy, Tusk said the leaders agreed to explore how European companies could "voluntarily" join up and buy gas from external suppliers and also how to achieve strategic partnerships with countries that are increasingly important for the production and transit of energy.

The European Commission announced in February the Energy Union strategy which has five "mutually-reinforcing and closely interrelated" dimensions designed to bring greater energy security, sustainability and competitiveness: energy security, solidarity and trust; a fully integrated European energy market; energy efficiency contributing to moderation of demand; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness. Endit