Diplomatic Morning Briefing with Georg Zachmann

ECFR Warsaw has recently introduced the new series of diplomacy experts meetings called “Diplomatic Morning Briefings”.

 

On 12th of November the Brefieng was lead by Georg Zachmann, who is a Research Fellow at Breugel (Brussels-based think tank). His visit to Poland follows intensive discussions at the recent EU summit on energy package and Polish doubtful success in the negotiations. 

 

The EU is on track to meet its energy targets set for 2020, yet EU energy policy is generally not perceived as a success. As Mr Zachmann stated in his recent brief, energy policy of the EU is driven by three objectives: sustainability, security of supply and competitiveness. The Ukraine-Russia crisis proved that security of supply is under threat as member states rely massively on gas import from Russia.

 

Mr Zachmann commented on the 2030 energy targets for the EU, which are, in his opinion nothing else but extrapolation of EU’s previous goals. What the EU really needs, he claims, is a strategy for the energy resources and market. The main role of the common policy would be to develop reliable frameworks that will encourage the investment that will enable stable energy services at the lowest costs.

 

Currently states undertake strategic decisions based on short term internal political incentives which hinder harmonisation of the whole EU energy policy. This difficult situation leads to a conclusion that there is an inability and lack of will to accommodate different visions into one sustainable European project.