PM Says EU Summit Agrees on Energy, Innovation
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said Friday that EU leaders agreed it was impossible to have a coherent foreign energy policy without a coherent interior energy policy. The summit also agreed on establishing a European Institute of Technology (EIT), Jansa said in Finland's Lahti.
Speaking at the sidelines of a meeting of EU heads of state and government, Jansa stressed the importance of the broad acceptance of the notion that only a unified energy policy can make the EU successful in energy talks with third countries such as Russia.
Europe needs a more unified access to key energy suppliers, especially in the light of the increasing dependency in energy imports, the EU leaders have agreed according to Jansa.
They also saw eye-to-eye on the need to strengthen research into sustainable energy sources, labelling such research the key to preventing climate change.
Jansa told his colleagues that Slovenia would earmark EUR 4bn from public and public-private funds for a programme of research and implementation of renewable energy sources in the coming years.
He said that greater use of nuclear energy in the future is a fact.
The participants also endorsed a European Commission document on a new innovation strategy and the setting up of the EIT.
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