Members from the European and national parliaments met on 20-21 November in Strasbourg, to discuss how the energy sector should evolve, and what approach the EU should take to international climate negotiations. The energy discussion focused on the future of EU energy supply and on the promotion of energy innovation. Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament, who was one of the co-chairs of the meeting, spoke of the importance of agreeing to a common position. Meanwhile the President of the French National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, admitted ‘energy and sustainable development is one of the major priorities of the French presidency and it's the most difficult one’.

Joseph Daul, the leader of the EPP-ED, added that there was a need for the EU to demonstrate ‘political courage to pursue the adoption of the climate change package’. Satu Haasi, a Green MEP and rapporteur for the effort-sharing directive of the energy and climate change package, spoke of the financial incentive of making strong binding commitments now, saying ‘the crisis will be more expensive the later we start to fight it’.

The meeting coincided with the release of a report by the EEA (European Environment Agency), which stresses that despite improvements, the energy sector continues to be an ‘environmental threat’, with 80% of greenhouse gas emissions being produced by the sector in Europe. For an executive summary of the report please click here.

Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of EEA and also present at the event, spoke of the need for ‘a fundamental reform of our energy supply’, especially given the recent findings from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change), which indicate current global atmospheric carbon levels exceeded those of the most pessimistic projections.

After the discussion, three working groups were formed consisting of MEPs and their national counterparts. This gave the participants an opportunity to debate Europe's energy policy and security of supply, energy innovation and sustainable development, as well as European energy policy, climate change and international negotiations.