Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 25 / Trend A.Badalova /
The EU internal energy market will create the potential for partnerships benefiting the EU, its Member States and the EU's partners, EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said in an interview with Trend
"The EU internal energy market, in particular its solid legal framework for energy trade, investment and safety, gives the EU much strength and create the potential for partnerships benefiting the EU, Member States and the EU's partners abroad," Oettinger said.
The Commissioner stressed that 27 EU European Heads of States or Governments set a clear deadline of 2014 for the completion of the EU's internal energy market, "which is a key instrument in delivering what EU citizens and business aspire to most: economic growth, jobs, secure coverage of their basic needs at an affordable and competitive price, and sustainable use of limited resources."
"The regulatory framework which has been progressively put in place at the EU level entails important consequences towards partner countries such as in the field of network access, safety and competition provisions. This is why we also want to build up the external dimension of our internal energy market," Oettinger said.
To create a genuine internal market for energy is one of the EU's priority objectives. The European Commission believes that the existence of a competitive internal energy market is a strategic instrument in terms both of giving European consumers a choice between different companies supplying gas and electricity at reasonable prices, and of making the market accessible for all suppliers, especially the smallest and those investing in renewable forms of energy. Moreover, a truly integrated market will contribute to diversification and thus to security of supply.
In February 2011 the EU Heads of States declared the need to complete the internal energy market by 2014.
Oettinger stressed that the EU energy market depends on high levels of imports to function, and therefore depends on free and transparent markets. According to Oettinger, supply security in one part depends on security across the market as a whole.
"We want to use the leverage of the EU internal energy market to facilitate large-scale infrastructure projects linking the EU network to third countries," Oettinger said.
Talking about the gas demand in the EU countries and the perspectives for its further growth, Oettinger said that gas will be critical for the transformation of the energy system.
According to Oettinger, substitution of coal (and oil) with gas in the short to medium term could help to reduce emissions with existing technologies until at least 2030 or 2035.
According to Oettinger, gas will stay high in sectors such as the power sector over a longer period. With evolving technologies, gas might play an increasing role in the future, Oettinnger said.
Meanwhile, according to the Commissioner's information, the EU's natural gas consumption for the first half of 2012 represented the EU's lowest first half year consumption of the last ten years.
"It was 7 percent less than in the first half of 2011 and 14 percent less than in the first half of 2010," Oettinger said.