Blair Pushed for EU Common Energy Policy
In the first official visit to Germany since the conservative Merkel took office, Tony Blair said key energy issues included research and development of renewable sources, and interconnection of national power grids. Europe should come together and use its collective bargaining power in negotiating energy issues with the outside world, he said. The EU buys a quarter of its gas from Russia. Calls for a common energy policy have intensified since a gas price row between Russia and Ukraine in January which saw supplies to Europe drop. But there is little agreement on how to curb dependency on supplies from geopolitically unstable regions, particularly as EU member states pursue different approaches on nuclear power.
While France is strongly pro-nuclear, Germany's coalition government has agreed to phase out nuclear energy sources. The British government, faced by dwindling oil and gas supplies from the North Sea, is now looking into whether to build new nuclear power plants after launching an energy review in January.
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