Bankwatch contribution to the public consultation process regarding the external dimension of the EU energy policy

Policy comments    |    7 March 2011

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The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) strategy paper 2007-2013 for the eastern neighbourhood region involves contradictory strategic objectives. The first of these is sustainable development and environmental protection, which underpins all EU legislation and policies. However, the second priority, the need to ensure the diversification and security of energy supplies to the EU, emphasises the need for further extraction and transportation of the Caspian Seas oil and gas resources to Europe, and thus prioritises it over the development of an environmentally friendly energy sector within the region.

Bankwatch’s submission focuses on two aspects in particular:

• the EU energy policy’s impacts especially in terms of the sustainable and democratic development of eastern European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries and Central Asia
• the need to respond to the challenges of climate change also through the external actions of the EUs energy policy

The submission is complemented by two case studies that provide further arguments for the positions expressed.