One of the priority objectives of the EU-energy policy is to "reduce the vulnerability" (dependency of oil states in the Gulf region) and develop alternative supply.
Development of the European Energy Policy
No provision was made for a common energy policy as such when the European Communities were first established. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) created the institutional framework for coal in 1951 and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) did the same for nuclear power in 1957. The other energy sources fell within the scope of the European Economic Community (EEC), also established in 1957, though there was no direct reference to energy policy in the treaty.
After a few years it became clear that the ECSC and Euratom would not live up to initial expectations. Cheap and plentiful energy imports played their role in the economic growth in the 60s. But in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis the European governments joined the International Energy Agency (IEA), established in 1974 under the auspices of the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) of which Western countries and the European Commission are members). The agency agreed to build up a joint reserve, to be used if oil supplies were interrupted. The EC only played a subsidiary role in this. In 1983, the Council (Energy), granted the Community the power to formulate its own energy policy for the first time. The European Commission responded by presenting the report, "The Internal Energy Market" (1988). Through a far-reaching liberalization of the European energy market, the Commission hopes to promote growth in the gas and electricity industries, increase the flexibility of the European energy system, and remove obstacles that hinder integration at the national level.
The EU has a whole range of instruments which they can use to intervene in the energy industries in the member-states; competition rules and trade standards, price limits and quotas, technical standards, limit values, supervisory powers, information systems, subsidies and investment credits. Its power to intervene directly is the greatest in relation to the coal and nuclear industries. Of course the autonomy of the EU is tempered by the involvement of the member-states.
The EU's decision-making procedures are quite diverse and not that easy to follow. In general, the European Commission has a strong hand in areas governed by the ECSC and Euratom Treaties: as a supranational supervisory body and the Community's representative on the international scene, it acts directly and autonomously. Irrespective of the Union's formal powers, the extreme politicization of many energy-related issues means that lengthy discussions are needed on every level of the institutional structure of the EU before any agreement can be reached.
Traditionally, the EU's efforts to develop new energy sources have focused on nuclear power (fission and fusion). However, more important is the fact that energy in the EU budget is very marginal. Energy is one of the fields almost entirely decided upon in the individual member-states and not on the EU level.
Source: Europe from A to Z: A guide to European Integration; European
Documentation 1997, p 88.
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