Seminar
Details
The spring Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the European Union is scheduled for May 22. The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy plans to dedicate the Summit to the theme of the energy policy and in particular to the question of the energy prices. This choice is fully understandable in light of Eurostat data, which show the EU-wide increase of the gas prices for the industrial consumers by 28,3 % and for the private households by 23,1 % in the period between 2010 and 2012. The issue of the energy prices is of crucial importance for both the private households and the industry, for which it translates in the competitiveness of the whole economy. Even though energy prices in Poland are considered as relatively low in absolute numbers, compared to the purchase power they belong to one of the highest in Europe, as the German prices do. Such a situation has its social consequences, giving rise to the increasing wave of discontent. This situation is also problematic for the competitiveness of the economy of the Member States and for the EU as a whole. How do Poland and Germany – two countries with the leading industry production in the EU deal with this situation.
There exists a second dimension of this problem, as the wholesale energy prices are falling due to the low cost of the renewables energy production (the production costs of solar and wind energy are low, although the investment costs are high). At the same time, renewable energy cannot provide stable energy supply (cloudy or windless days) so construction of the conventional power plants is still indispensable. However, the decreasing wholesale energy prices make the financing of investments problematic.
In this context appears a question of investment in energy infrastructure. Although the European Commission finances the cross-border transmission infrastructure through the “Connecting Europe” programme but it is up to the Member States to ensure that their wattage is covered. In Poland the recent decision by Polish Energy Group to cancel construction of two new coal-fired blocks in the Opole Power Plant is not isolated – earlier such a decision was taken regarding some smaller scale investments by the German RWE and the French EdF.
How can the competitiveness of European economy be preserved, while the energy prices are high due to the prices of natural resources and the profitability of investment is low– those are the questions that we will attempt to tackle on the eve of the European Council.
Seminar programme:
1.00 – 1.30 pmRegistration
1.30 pm Opening of the seminar
Introduction by Ambassador Janusz Reiter, President of the Center of International Relations in Warsaw
1.45 pm Introductory statements (10 Minutes each):
Janusz Steinhoff, former deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy
Mariusz Swora, PhD, Law Department of the Jagielloński University, President of the Energy Regulatory Office 2007–2010
Björn Spiegel, Economic Council to the CDU e.V., Head of the Energy Policy Division
Christoph Bender, Association of the German Petroleum Industry, Head of the Energy Policy Unit
Mechthild Woersdoerfer, Head of Unit for Energy Policy & Monitoring of electricity, gas coal and oil markets, DG Energy, European Comission
2.45 – 4.00 pm Discussion – Questions and answers
Polish-English translation will be provided.
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