EU energy security to take center-stage in 2006

The gas disute between Russia and the Ukraine underlines the need for a common European energy policy. Europe’s increasing dependence on insecure energy suppliers will put its long-term economic future at risk.

..The “new cold war” (The Times) could well be the first of a series of events this year that will demonstrate the return of global energy policy as the main driver of external policies. With some energy experts also predicting the “end of cheap oil” as oil production might be close to its “peak” and increasing world demand is seen to outstrip global supply, the issue of energy security, which was high on the political agenda in the 70s and 80s, will return to the fore of EU policy-making in 2006.

EurActiv