Third report on the State of the Energy Union

Key points

• The European Economic and Social Committee welcomes the opportunity to provide an opinion on the Third report on State of the Energy Union by the European Commission, as it did before for the first and second reports. As expressed in previous opinions, the EESC strongly supports the idea of a European Energy Union and would like to stress that the Energy Union is not only relevant to sectoral policies such as energy, transport and climate but offers opportunities to make Europe more democratic, more cohesive, more competitive, and more just.
• To realise this vision, the EESC deems it important to set more ambitious targets, especially in view of the Paris Agreement, to include a long-term perspective for the Energy Union until 2050, to ensure that civil society is effectively involved in the production of energy transition plans at different levels, and to assess and address not only technical but also market and institutional barriers preventing the general public, consumers, communities, and SMEs from participating and benefitting fully from the clean energy transition.
• A range of institutional innovations are therefore proposed by the Committee, ranging from a Social Pact for a Citizens-driven Energy Transition and a European Energy Information Service to a European Energy Transition Adjustment Fund and a Green Erasmus Pro.