Azerbaijan’s pivotal role is related to its position as an ‘’enabler’’ of the Southern Gas Corridor

Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Šefčovič, how has the 2016 year been running for the European Commission? Have you succeeded in achieving all the objectives on delivery of the Energy Union? 

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Energy Union: I will remember the 2016 as a year of fundamental change, moving us away from centralized fossil-fuel-based systems built some 100 years ago. Over the past 2 years, we’ve been building the Energy Union “house” floor after floor and at the end of 2016 we finally added the roof. Thus we delivered the most robust package in the history of EU´s energy and climate policymaking, entitled “Clean Energy for all Europeans”. It is a piece of well-rounded Energy Union legislation supplemented by a far-reaching set of facilitating measures to create necessary conditions implementing the Energy Union in practice. The Energy Union house is now ready, its residents can move in, as long as our co- legislators – the European Parliament and the Council - give their final approval. 

We have also advanced with development of cross-border capacities in gas, allowing hub-based pricing to expand further whilst enhancing market integration and energy security. EU´s gross inland gas consumption manifested the growing role of gas as a support fuel to renewables. In comparison to 2013 and 2014, diversification of gas supplies improved, especially in central European and Baltic countries.

However, some Member States are still fully or predominantly dependent on supply from a single third country, notably Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia, in particular for gas but often for oil and/or coal, too. 

It is exciting to see that the European society is after 300 hundred years of industrialization moving towards low-impact, sustainable existence. EU emissions are now 22% below the 1990 whilst its GDP has grown by 50% since. This means we have successfully decoupled emissions from our economic growth and continue to be the most greenhouse gas efficient economy among the G20.

The climate change clock is ticking and it cannot be stopped. The question is not what should be done, but how quickly we can do it. Therefore, in 2017 we will shift our focus to speedy implementation of the comprehensive legislation we proposed last year.