Energy policy

Abstract

The new Community Energy Policy Objectives for 1995¹ approved by the Council of Ministers in September 1986 represent the latest in a series of attempts to establish a co-ordinated energy policy amongst the member states. Such attempts have from the outset faced considerable difficulties. In the first place, unlike agriculture no mention is made of energy in the Treaty of Rome establishing the Community. Thus the Commission has had difficulty in winning acceptance of the need for a coordinated policy amongst the member countries. Secondly the energy situations of the member countries have little in common — some are significant energy importers (see Table 1), others are producers as well as consumers and all have different traditions of government intervention in the operation of the energy sector and in levels of public subsidy. The Commission has had more success in achieving agreement to resolutions on principles than in obtaining decisions. In addition the formal consultative procedure within the Community is responsible for substantial delays in the adoption of proposals. For example, the latest energy policy decisions were based on Commission proposals put forward in mid 1985 which in turn arose out of analyses made in 1984.