adminBRUSSELS — The European Commission (EC) yesterday proposed a new European Energy Security Strategy to enhance the security of the European Union’s (EU) energy supply.
The EC has proposed diversifying external energy supplies, upgrading energy infrastructure, completing the EU internal energy market and saving energy. The strategy also highlights the need to coordinate national energy policy decisions and the importance of speaking with one voice when negotiating with external partners.
The EC proposals, including actions to ensure uninterrupted supplies this winter, will be discussed by EU heads of state or government at the European Council on June 26-27, the EC said.
“I count on their strong support, since increasing energy security is in all our interest. On energy security, Europe must speak and act as one,” EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement.
Recent events have raised EU-wide concerns about ensuring uninterrupted energy flows as well as stable energy prices.
The strategy builds on the progress already achieved since the gas crisis in 2009.
Following the March 2014 European Council conclusions, the EC was committed to conduct an in-depth study on European energy security and to present a comprehensive plan on how to reduce EU energy dependence by June 2014.
In Paris, Britain and Germany topped an annual ranking of foreign investment projects in Europe while France lagged behind though its numbers were on the rise, a study showed on Tuesday.
Retaining its top position, Britain saw the number of foreign investment projects in the country rise by 15 percent last year to 799, according to Ernst and Young.
Meanwhile, Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and industrial powerhouse, saw an increase of 12 percent to 701 foreign investments.
France appeared to have halted some of its decline in recent years although the number of foreign investments grew more slowly than in Britain or Germany.
With a 9 percent increase last year in investments to 514 projects, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg seized on the study as a sign of the government’s success in reviving French firms’ competitiveness and improving the country’s attractiveness.
In a move to improve competitiveness further, president Francois Hollande aims to phase out €30bn in payroll tax companies pay over the next three years in exchange for commitments to create jobs.
Ernst and Young said that the total number of foreign investments in Europe rose 5 percent to a record 3,955 projects, creating 166,300 jobs which was down from pre-crisis levels of close to 200,000.
While intra-European investment accounted for 54 percent of foreign investment, the United States was the single biggest foreign investor followed by Germany and Britain.
In one of the latest examples of US investment in Europe, US conglomerate General Electric is seeking to buy the energy assets of French group Alstom, once an icon of French industry.
However, it faces resistance from the French government, which prefers a European tie-up between Alstom and German rival Siemens and which has widened its control of foreign takeovers with a decree giving it powers to veto deals. — Zeenews.
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