February 6th, 2015, Riga – Latvian Minister of the Economy, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, together with Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union, hosted a high-level Energy Union Conference, that launched the ‘Riga Process’ of establishing an Energy Union, by creating a platform for a broad dialogue and ensuring the input of Member States, academia, civil society, NGOs and industry during the initial phase when the concept is still being developed. Current global changes in the energy landscape, as well as existing energy security challenges, underline the need for the transition of the EU’s energy policy. For Europe, it is clear that significant progress has been made; however, there are still tasks that we need to fulfil. Europe still relies too heavily on fuel and gas imports, the EU’s internal energy market is not yet complete, and we are facing challenges of high energy costs and challenges in the R&D sector. Current political momentum provides the opportunity to ensure better performance of the EU energy sector, and this shouldnot be missed. Creating a European Energy Union is one of the key priorities identified in the Strategic Agenda of the new Commission. Heads of states and governments have also stressed the need for a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate policy. President Junker stressed that Europe needs to create an Energy Union by pooling resources, connecting networks, and uniting our power when negotiating with non-EU countries. Development of the European Energy Union concept is one of the main priorities for the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the energy sector. The main aim behind [...]
In a few words
We represent the widely understood Central Europe energy sector (electricity generation, distribution and transmission, renewables, gas, oil, heat generation and distribution, chemical industries, etc.), universities and scientific institutions.
