Energising European recovery

(EurActiv, 17 Jan 2017) Last year’s Winter Energy Package contains the seeds of two fundamental economic and political requirements needed for the EU to prosper: returning some ‘power to the people’, alongside European investment and network integration, write a number of energy experts.

Michael Grubb is professor of climate change policy at University College London; Simon Müller is an analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris; Jean-Michel Glachant is the director of the Florence School of Regulation; and Karsten Neuhoff heads the climate policy department at DIW Berlin.

Energy is a backbone of economic development. The origin of the EU itself lies in the European Coal and Steel Community, an energy-based treaty that helped to power post-war reconstruction.

December’s Winter Package marks recognition that the energy challenge has changed fundamentally. Embodying the much-vaunted Energy Union, it is constructed around major challenges, which also offer profound opportunities.

The first opportunity lies in the way in which new technologies are revolutionising the potential role of energy consumers, and indeed could create a whole new class of ‘prosumers’.  Farmers, retail chains and even households, particularly in rural areas, have new opportunities to be active participants in the energy system.

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EurActiv, 17 Jan 2017: Energising European recovery