EP committee examines EU energy security plan

European Parliament (EP) industry committee debated on the energy security plans this week, seeking ways for the European Union (EU) to reduce energy dependence, EP said in a statement published on Thursday.
The energy security plan, submitted by the European Commission, aims to improve the EU's situation of relying on the external energy.
Statistics shows the EU imports 53 percent of the energy it consumes, including almost 90 percent of its crude oil, 66 percent of its natural gas and 42 percent of its solid fuels such as coal.
In 2013 the bill for importing energy amounted to about 400 billion euros (about 538.5 billion U.S. dollars), said the EP.
Meanwhile, EU is also heavily dependent on one single supplier, namely Russia, responsible for a third of oil imports, 39 percent of gas and 26 percent of solid fuels. Six EU countries depend on Russia as the supplier for their entire gas imports.
That can make the EU "vulnerable to external energy suppliers", the statement said.
The EU is now seeking to reduce this dependence by diversifying energy sources and suppliers, cutting back on energy consumption, boosting energy production and cooperation between countries and investing in renewable energy.
These initiatives and others have all been outlined in the European energy security strategy, which was presented by the European commission in May and debated by the industry committee this week.
"Energy security will play a prominent role in the work of the committee in the months to come. This issue is of crucial importance to all of us." Chair of the EP industry committee Jerzy Buzek said earlier this week. (1 euro = 1.35 U.S. dollars)