di Andreea Strachinescu| European Commission DG Energy Head of unit C.2

Over the last decades the European Union has achieved a huge progress in terms of decarbonising its energy system but still there are challenges to be addressed.


Despite the increasing share of RES (estimated in 22,3 percent in 2014) the European energy system still has a strong reliance on hydrocarbon and remains highly dependent on imports. A look at the European energy system clearly shows that it is still characterised by diversity and fragmentation. The 28 Member States have different national regulations, different energy sources, different history in terms of international relations and import of energy resources.
As for energy networks interconnection at European level, a lot is to be achieved in order to accomplish in the most cost-effective and sustainable way the energy and climate goals that Europe has put forward and then assuring the security of the European energy system.

One of the biggest challenges the EU faces is the energy import dependency which is among the highest in the world and has increased during the decade 2002- 2012 despite the increased penetration of locally produced RES.
Only Japan and South Korea, from the other big world competitors, remain heavily depended on energy imports, while economies that have been rapidly developed the last decades, like China (coal depended) and India, still have a much lower proportion of energy imports.
It’s interesting though to note that both China’s and India’s energy import dependency seems to rise in a very high pace, a trend that if it continues will increase the global competition on energy imports. On the other hand the US managed to significantly reduce their dependency thanks to the unconventional gas developments.[...]

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