President José Manuel Barroso today presented the European Commission’s second Strategic Energy Review package with five points given top priority in the EU Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan. The Commision also identified the biggest challenges that the EU is likely to face from 2020 to 2050 as well as including a package on energy efficiency proposals aimed at bringing about greater energy savings.

There has been a mixed response to the review but Mr Barroso has said the adoption of the proposals represents ‘an unequivocal statement of the Commission's desire to guarantee secure and sustainable energy supplies, and should help us deliver on the crucial 20-20-20 climate change targets’.

In order to make the EU’s energy supply more secure and sustainable the review calls for more effective support for improving infrastructure, whilst another key objective is making better use of its indigenous energy resources, both renewable and fossil. The EU should try to increase solidarity, including EU crisis mechanisms, oil stocks and a variety of mechanisms to respond to possible gas disruption and additional and more urgent efforts have to be made to improve energy efficiency. There is finally also need for greater focus on energy in international relations which the Commission proposes can be achieved by establishing and improving relationships with supplier, transit and consumer countries.

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has warned that the EU must not now rest on its laurels, and should strive to become more ambitious. In fact he explained that this would be the perfect time for new investment, cost savings and creating jobs, arguing that ‘investing in energy, including energy efficiency, means giving our economy the push it needs at this uncertain time’.