The European Union will continue to
assist and support the transition to a low-carbon economy, especially
for countries with economies that are energy and carbon intensive,
European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union
Maroš Šefčovič
said in Katowice. He noted that Poland has played a key role in
integrating Europe’s energy markets. Šefčovič visited Poland for the
second Energy Union Tour
on May 10-12 where he met with Polish Energy Minister
Krzysztof Tchórzewski to discuss the changes facing the Polish energy sector.
“The solidarity mechanisms under the EU
Emission Trading System will help ten EU countries weather this
transition. Poland will benefit greatly from this solidarity mechanism.
Apart from this, the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, the European Fund
for Strategic Investments, the Horizon 2020 programme devote
significant proportions of their budgets to the objectives of the Energy
Union: i.e. competitive, sustainable and affordable energy,” Šefčovič
said at an opening speech at the 9th European Economic Congress in
Katowice on ‘The energy industry in Europe – the most important
questions’.
“To give an example, through 24 national
and regional programmes, Poland has been allocated 86 billion euros from
ESI Funds over the period 2014-2020, which is an annual budgetary
effort equivalent to nearly 3% of Polish GDP. Out of this, around 19
billion euros will be invested in projects contributing to the Energy
Union objectives in Poland. And of course, other than funding, the EU
can provide a great level of technical assistance, creating synergies
and spill over of best practices across Europe and the rest of the
world,” he said.
Turning to the global energy landscape,
Šefčovič noted that the balance of power is being significantly redrawn
and its main supply and demand centres are constantly changing,” he
said.
On the supply side, Šefčovič noted that
the US gas deliveries to Europe are becoming a reality. Poland is one of
the frontrunners with the first cargo expected to arrive in
Świnoujście
LNG terminal in June. At the same time, the stability and reliability
of Russian gas flows into the EU have been put constantly into question,
even though our experience with transit through Ukraine is positive and
Ukraine has been a reliable transit country, he said, adding that the
European Commission is working intensively to ensure gas supplies from
the Caspian region before 2020.
“The gradual removal of sanctions from
Iran and new discoveries in the Mediterranean may also create potential
new and returning exporters. On its end, Poland is actively pursuing the
Northern Gate project, which could lead to a major change in gas
supplies in Central and Eastern Europe,” he said.
On the demand side, Šefčovič noted that
the underlying trend is that global energy demand is expected to
continue to increase by over one third, or by nearly 5000 Mtoe, up to
2040, mainly driven by emerging economies. China and India alone are
expected to represent just under half of the total increase in global
energy demand.
Meanwhile, the share of the European
Union in global energy demand is expected to decrease. In 2012, the EU
accounted for just over 12% of global energy demand. This is expected to
be reduced to just over 8% by 2040.
“But while the overall importance of the
EU on global energy markets will decline, global energy markets will be
increasingly important for the EU. Why? Because almost 70 % of the gas
and almost 90% of the oil used in the EU is imported today. By 2040, we
estimate that imports could account for over 86% of the gas and 100% of
the oil consumed in the EU as our domestic production of these fuels
decreases,” he said.
“We will partly offset this increasing
dependence on imported hydrocarbons by continuing to promote the growth
of renewable energies and with vigorous energy efficiency measures,”
Šefčovič said.
So far, the majority of EU’s imported oil
and gas comes from the bloc’s wider neighbourhood – from Russia, Norway
and Algeria, he said, adding that given the relatively few sources and
routes, which supply the European market, a lot has been done to
strengthen the EU’s energy security since the previous crises in 2006
and 2009. This includes new inter-connections inside Europe and reverse
flow capabilities on key gas pipelines, which have reduced the number of
Member States exclusively dependent on one single supplier.
“In all of this work, there has been a
growing realisation that a more decisive and co-ordinated approach is
necessary in order to face the growing energy challenges and at the same
time address climate change,” Šefčovič said, adding that this led to
the agreement of the EU Heads of State and Government in March 2015 that
an Energy Union with a forward-looking climate policy should be one of
the overarching priorities for the future.
He referred to “the tremendous role of Poland” in integrating Europe’s energy markets, conceptualised by
Jerzy Buzek and Council President
Donald Tusk who revived the legacy of
Jacques Delors.
“The Energy Union now encompasses five areas where the EU needs to seek
collective answers to these global changes: in energy security; in the
way our internal market in energy functions and delivers welfare for EU
citizens, businesses and industry; in the way we consume energy, trying
not to waste this important resource by further increasing our energy
efficiency; in the way we deal with climate change for the benefit of
future generations; And finally in order to strengthen our
competitiveness and innovation,” Šefčovič said.
“Most recently, we have concluded the
legislative process on proposals concerning the first dimension of the
Energy Union that I mentioned, namely energy security and solidarity: we
will have much more transparency in intergovernmental agreements on gas
and in commercial gas contracts; we will have better regional
cooperation in potential supply crises between EU Member States. All
this has been strongly supported by Poland,” Šefčovič said.
He reminded that Poland is already a champion in many aspects of the industrial and energy transition.
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