Europe Unveils Plans for Single Energy Market Within 10 Years

The European Union has unveiled plans for a single European energy market, a 1 trillion-euro ($1.38 trillion) strategy to achieve energy security and cut fossil fuel emissions. The 10-year plan would include upgrades to the continent’s aging pipelines and build infrastructure that allows energy to flow across borders from one end of Europe to the other. The new system also will help the expansion of renewable energy supplies, across the continent, the EU said. “Looking at our network for gas, oil and electricity, we are all still stuck within the borders of the 19th century principalities,” Guenther Oettinger, the EU’s energy chief, told reporters. Within five years, he said, no European nation should be isolated from its neighbors. Without a single market, he added, the EU will not be able to meet its goals of cutting carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020 or improving energy efficiency by 20 percent. EU officials say detailed legislation should emerge over the next 18 months.