“The events at the beginning of the year have shown that Europe cannot take secure energy supplies for granted. The appropriate lessons must now be learnt from these events and action taken to secure Europe’s energy supplies in the long term”, Austria’s Economics and Labour Minister Martin Bartenstein, the current Council President, said on Tuesday during a topical and urgent debate on energy policy at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. According to Bartenstein, the European Commission and Austrian Presidency’s diplomatic initiative had succeeded in restoring the uninterrupted transport of gas from Russia to Europe through the Ukraine.
Bartenstein considers that diversifying geographical origins and transport routes is one of the principal measures that can be taken to secure the supply of gas (e.g. the 3 300 kilometre “Nabucco” pipeline, when completed in 2020, will transport between 25 and 31 billion cbm of natural gas to the EU along a new route from the Caspian region through Turkey). He also advocates greater use of liquefied natural gas - by increasing capacity from the current 60 billion cbm to 160 billion cbm in 2010 - and increased transparency in the hydrocarbons markets, in order to reduce the extreme price volatility and ensure stable prices that reflect the true market situation.
Bartenstein argued in favour of expanding gas storage capacity, increasing intra-Community exchanges of gas and improving energy efficiency on the demand side. The use of nuclear energy was "not an option" for him and was definitely excluded in Austria.
The speech is currently available in the original German version only on the Austrian Presidency website (click here).
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