The Power of a European Energy Union

62 75. Observer status for the Energy Charter Conference in the General Assembly

Wishing to promote cooperation between the United Nations and the Energy Charter Conference,

Redesigning European Energy Security

The existing Energy Charter Treaty including the Transit Protocol must remain a cornerstone of Europe s energy security policy.

1. Decides to invite the Energy Charter Conference to participate in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly in the capacity of observer

The European Stability and Growth Pact of 1995 has fared no better.

But collective energy security requires increasing the EU s ability to face and face down external energy challenges.

Electricity grids are the key infrastructure element that will connect the EU power markets.

In 2008, renewable energy (mainly hydropower and various forms of wood energy) was high at 31 compared with the EU average of 10.3 in final energy consumption.

Of course, the notion of energy security is fuzzy. In their research paper, Energy Security An Impact Assessment of the EU Climate and Energy Package, Böhringer and Keller note that the EU has never set itself a clear metric for energy security.

In their research paper, Energy Security An Impact Assessment of the EU Climate and Energy Package, Böhringer and Keller note that the EU has never set itself a clear metric for energy security.

Recently, in response to an initiative by France, Germany, Spain and Sweden, the EU has also made a stronger commitment to the promotion of youth employment through the European Youth Pact.

Europe can help by insisting that Russia participate in the European Energy Charter, which calls for Gazprom to grant its production competitors access to Russian pipelines, and for all disputes to be settled by international arbitration.

Before the financial crisis, even Germany violated the EU Stability and Growth Pact s (SGP) deficit limits.

There must be a general shift in both European and global energy policies.

For example, all the Union s future energy agreements should include an energy security clause that explicitly outlines a code of conduct and measures to be taken in the event of a supply disruption.

The development of renewable energy sources should play a major part in any integrated EU energy policy.

When Europe fell into a deep recession after 1995, attention shifted to growth, and the Stability Pact became the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) when the European Council adopted a resolution on growth and employment in 1997.

For Europe s energy future, today is the moment for tough decisions.

The European Energy Council and Greenpeace believes that the entire world can be powered by renewable energy by 2090.

The Energy Charter Treaty has failed to bring Russia into a rule based framework for international transit via oil and gas pipelines.

If making a product in the EU costs more because of higher energy costs, the product will likely be made somewhere else, where energy is cheaper, and then imported into the EU.

The EU S Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) is an excellent but modest start, and should be scaled up

But the asymmetry in European Union Russian energy relations must end.

Nordic countries were pioneers in liberalizing energy, postal, and other markets in Europe.

The EU has also suddenly awakened to the need for a common external energy security policy, not least to diversify away from Russian supplies.

EU leaders can build an economy that is less dependent on imported energy through increased efficiency and greater reliance on domestically produced clean energy.

But higher energy prices, by themselves, will not cause the ECB to pull the interest rate trigger.

In the early 1990 s, when the plans for the European Monetary Union (EMU) were drawn up, Germany insisted on a Stability Pact as a price for giving up the Deutschmark.

In building the means to secure Europe s energy future, we will also renew the spirit of European integration and give new strength to the EU as a global actor.

But it gets worse, because these models still assume that the EU picks the cheapest renewables to fulfill its requirements. Instead, most EU countries give higher subsidies to the most costly renewables.

Of course, a common EU security strategy is not meant to undermine the rights of individual member states to choose their internal energy policies. But collective energy security requires increasing the EU s ability to face and face down external energy challenges.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union interpreted by the European Court of Justice does not to apply fully to the United Kingdom, Poland, and the Czech Republic by the British Protocol.

The model for Charter 08 was Czechoslovakia s Charter 77.

Households consume one third of the final energy used in the European Union and produce around two thirds of municipal waste.

There is an obvious solution, similar to the Coal and Steel Community implemented by our founding fathers a European energy, environment, and research community (E3RC).

New York Pact

Charter of Ethics

To help meet its commitment to youth employment, the European Union is investing more in human capital through better education and skills, including through the European Youth Pact for Young People adopted in February 2005.

Since 1990, the EU has heavily subsidized solar and wind energy at a cost of more than 20 billion annually.

The EU urgently needs to build a common energy policy and a single market for natural gas.

Moreover, Russian gas represents only 6 7 of the EU s total primary energy supply.

The EU now needs to develop a single European body for international energy negotiations.

Common threats to Europe s energy security demand a common response.