For the first time, the energy policy at the EU level was formally constituted in the primary law as late as in the Lisbon Treaty (2009) and is included in the area of so-called shared competences. Most of measures will be adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure jointly by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union. Detailed information about the energy policy may be found for example in the Euratom Treaty and in a number of provisions contained in the chapters on the internal market, environment and particularly in acts of the secondary Community law.
The aim of the European energy policy is to develop a low-energy economy which is safer, more sustainable and more competitive.
There is no so-called “Common Energy Policy” in the European Union, although the very foundations of the European integration were based on cooperation among states in the field of energy industries. [Let us recall, for example, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), established in 1951, or the European Atomic Energy Community, which was founded six years later.] Nevertheless the European energy policy is not the official “Common Policy” of the EU yet, its importance is great.
If you want to read more about the coal and energetics in the European Union please click here (will open up a new window).
