Relying on the achievements of Hungary’s term of the presidency of the European Council, and in support of the efforts made by the Polish presidency, Hungary firmly stands up for the improvement of energy security in the European Union, Tamás Fellegi, Minister of National Development said at the two-day informal meeting of energy ministers in Wroclaw, Poland.

The disaster in Fukushima, the North-African events and the economic crisis have set a new stage for the Member States of the European Union. In the Minister’s opinion, a uniform and adequately coordinated external energy policy needs to be created in order to verify the internal market, achieve the key objectives of this policy and, more specifically, of international cooperation.

Tamás Fellegi highlighted that a uniform, dynamic and initiative energy policy is indispensable for the European Union and its Member States to secure a leading role in geopolitical issues beyond energy, successfully represent the energy-related interests of the Community and the individual nations outside the borders of the European Union, as well as improve the European industry.

The European Union has already proved that with joint effort the Member States are capable of achievements they are unable to make alone. According to the Minister, this advantage should be exploited to the full and turned into a permanent and consistent approach. The European Union and its Member States need to take further steps in order to frame these measures into a single unit.

It was in the European Union’s strategic interest to establish stable and long-term partnerships with the key energy suppliers and prospective new suppliers, as well as the energy consuming countries, including the emerging ones, Tamás Fellegi added.

On the second day of the meeting, Hungary was represented by Tamás Iván Kovács, Deputy State Secretary for European Union and International Affairs of the Hungarian Ministry of National Development. At the working breakfast, analysing the possible effects of the gradual phasing out of the German nuclear power plants, he said that at this moment nuclear energy can surely not be fully replaced by renewable resources. Nuclear energy can usefully contribute to the appropriate balancing of capacities and the management of climate change challenges in the future as well.

During the negotiation the European Commission furnished preliminary information on the draft legislation to be issued in the near future in relation to the European energy infrastructure. Related to this issue, Tamás Iván Kovács voiced the significance of the energy infrastructure financing issues, the social and economic cost-benefit analysis and the setting up of a Community framework regulation that takes the peculiarities of the various regions into consideration. The deputy state secretary expressed his hope that in the case of cross-border infrastructure projects the new package would also contain cost division guidelines.

The Polish presidency organised the informal meeting of energy ministers on 19 and 20 September, 2011 in Wroclaw. Among others, the ministers discussed the European Union's energy safety and external energy policy issues. The ministers discussed the possible methods of improving the efficiency of the Energy Community.

(Ministry of National Development , Department of Communication)