EU plans expert group to deal with energy crises

EU leaders will next week agree to set up a ­network of energy experts to deal with any future supply crisis like the one in January this year, when Russia cut off gas to Ukraine.

At the informal summit in Lahti next Friday (20 October), heads of state and government are expected to back a recommendation from the European Commission and the Finnish presidency of the EU to create a network of energy "correspondents", or high-level energy ­ministry officials.

According to a Commission paper on the EU’s ­external energy relations to be published today (12 ­October), the correspondents would "assist the EU’s early response and ­reactions in case of energy security threats" and ­"prepare the ground for ­actions and ­decisions in case of an ­energy security crisis by ­collecting, processing and ­distributing reliable inform­ation relevant to the ­secur­ity of energy supplies".

The recommendation is a central element of EU leaders’ planned discussions on external energy relations in Lahti which will take place over lunch. Heads of state and government are ­expected to back efforts at diversifying supplies through developing closer contractual relations with the Union’s neighbours and major energy suppliers. There will be an emphasis on expanding the EU’s ­internal market for energy to neighbouring countries such as Norway and Ukraine, signing up to agreements like the energy treaty for the western Balkans and memoranda of understanding. The EU is planning to sign memoranda of understanding with Algeria, Azerbaijan and Kazahkstan in the near future.

Energy will also be one of the main items to be discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin over dinner.

In the afternoon, leaders will focus on the subject of innovation and how to boost the EU’s ability to turn innovation into new products and grow hi-tech companies which can ­compete globally. The Commission has prepared a paper, to be adopted ­today, on an "innovation-friendly, modern Europe" which stresses the need for the EU to establish leadership in future strategic techno­logies. It recommends launching joint technology initiatives on hydrogen and fuel cells, nanoelectronics, innovative medicines, embedded intelligence and systems, clean sky, aeronautics and air transport and energy efficiency, based on the existing European Technology Platforms (ETPs) or joint research ventures.

The ETPs bring together researchers and private ­industry as part of attempts to help bring the products of research work onto the market.

Other priorities to boost the EU’s level of innovation highlighted by the ­paper include improving the intellectual property rights regime through a more coherent and consistent legal framework and speeding up the process of setting new industry ­standards for technologies (like the GSM mobile phone standard).

The debate on innovation will also give leaders a chance to react to the Commission’s proposal for a European Institute of Technology, to be adopted next Wednesday (18 October). At present, there is widespread scepticism among member states about the value of the EIT and fears that it could ­divert resources from ­other organisations and research institutes.

Over lunch, leaders will also discuss the situation in Darfur with a stress on maintaining diplomatic pressure on Sudan and neighbouring countries, strengthening the security aspect by boosting the peacekeeping force and avoiding a humanitarian disaster on the ground.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez ­Zapatero and the leaders of six member states with Mediterranean coastlines plus Portugal will raise the issue of illegal immigration.

The summit will start on Friday morning with a ­discussion with the social partners, ETUC, the European trade union confederation, and UNICE, the ­European employers’ federation, on ‘flexicurity’ or how to maintain social ­protection while increasing labour market flexibility.

EU leaders will next week agree to set up a ­network of energy experts to deal with any future supply crisis like the one in January this year, when Russia cut off gas to Ukraine.