Interview: Real EU energy union requires real political commitment by national gov'ts, says analyst

Real political commitment by national governments of European Union (EU) member states is required for the EU to achieve a real energy union, an energy expert at a leading Brussels-based think tank has said.

Georg Zachmann, a research fellow at Bruegel, made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua late on Thursday when the energy union topped the agenda's priorities during a two-day summit of the 28 EU member states' leaders.

The main challenge in building the EU's energy union is developing joint instruments and institutions that are empowered to overrule national policy decisions, Zachmann said.

"This is difficult as each member state has some energy policy areas on which it does not want to cede control," he told Xinhua.

European leaders during their meeting here on Thursday agreed to create an energy union and set out the first steps toward this by accelerating the connection of national pipelines and electricity grids of EU member states.

The EU has energy rules set at the European level, but in practice it has 28 national regulatory frameworks; a reality that the European Commission (EC) has warned cannot continue.

"An integrated energy market is needed to create more competition, lead to greater market efficiency through better use of energy generation facilities across the EU, and to produce affordable prices for consumers," the EC said when launching the initiative in February this year.

The common energy policy has been part of the EU Treaties since 2007. However, Zachmann said it's moving in the "wrong direction" because the national governments engage more in energy policies than the EU.

"To achieve a real energy union, it would require a real political commitment by the heads of national governments," Zachmann said, echoing the views of many other analysts.

That means the national governments of EU member states need to cede their control over energy polices and let the EU play a role in joint gas purchases and a decisive role in individual member states' negotiations with external partners, as suggested in the original EU energy union ambitions.

"It is currently not very likely," Zachmann said.

Regarding the prospective steps for the next few years that the EU will take towards an energy union, Zachmann told Xinhua that compromise only seems possible on strengthening the emission trading scheme, building more interconnections, and making national energy markets more compatible.

"But this will not do the trick, as the benefits of a real energy union only emerge with joint instruments (harmonized market rules) and institutions (a European energy regulator and a European network operator)," Zachmann said.

Asked about the possible cooperation between the EU and China both as big buyers in the world energy market, he said that while China and the EU compete for existing fossil fuels, "they are in the same boat in the area of developing new alternative energy sources."

"Coordination of innovation policies would, in the longer term, help both to get more secure energy at lower prices while saving the climate at the same time," he concluded.

The energy union is widely seen as the EU's effort to decrease its dependence on Russian energy and boost security of the energy supply against the backdrop of tense relations between the West and Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Russia provides around one third of the EU's oil and gas and some 40 percent of the gas is shipped through Ukraine. In 2009, Russia turned off the taps, causing shortages in the EU. Endit