Four years have passed since the EU was alerted by a European Commission Green Paper on the urgent need to secure its energy supplies, and two years since NATO’s Bucharest summit mandated the alliance to devise a strategy for energy security.

Since then the pressures on oil and gas supplies have intensified, with European public opinion uneasily observing Russia’s refusal to deal directly with NATO. At the same time, there have been unsettling fluctuations in spot energy prices and a set back to the COP15 climate change summit in Copenhagen last December that has done nothing to reassure investors in renewable energies.

The EU’s new Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger promises a more determined policy push to address Europe’s imported energy dependence, the workings of its own internal energy market and the pressing question of environmental standards that still look very hard to attain.

In February 2010, a new project to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Romania added itself to the existing competitor projects Nabucco and Nordstream project. What implications do these potentially conflicting projects have for security of supply in Europe?

Can Europe’s citizens expect to see a determined new energy strategy that will also allay security concerns? Or will the Barroso II commission deliver a package that is more reminiscent of earlier ones that turned out to be statements of ambition rather than of effective new policies?

Speakers:

Heinz Hilbrecht*, Director, Security of Supply, Energy Markets and Networks, DG Energy, European Commission

*to be confirmed

Policymakers’ dinners are designed to encourage specialists in a clearly defined policy area to discuss European and transatlantic policy issues with key EU and NATO officials, Permanent Representations Counsellors, NGOs and industry.


Attendance to this event is by invitation only.