Sustainable Development and Governance in Europe

5    A Common Market and sustainable energy for Europe

Florian Baumann

Introduction

The European energy policy is driven by different developments, many of which are global and therefore outside the control of the EU’s policy-makers. The first of these trends is the finite nature or scarcity of fossil fuel. The main problem Europe faces is that of import dependency, due to a lack of domestic resources and growing competition from other Organization for European Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as well as the emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. Scarcity also results from a lack of investment in the development of new deposits, insufficient diversification, hesitant progress on energy productivity, and disinterest in research ...