The European Commissioner for Energy is a member of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

. The current Commissioner is Kadri Simson, in office since 1 December 2019.

Responsibilities

The Commissioner holds responsibility for the European Union's energy policy as well as nuclear issues ( Euratom). It was previously a backwater in the commission but has now become sought-after as the European energy policy has been developed. The Commissioner for Energy has to deal with ongoing gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine which threaten European supplies, reduce dependence on Russian energy and reduce carbon emissions.Who’s who in the new Commission
Financial Times November 2009 The

Directorate-General Within the European Union, Directorates-General are departments with specific zones of responsibility, the equivalent of ministries at a national level. Most are headed by a European Commissioner, responsible for the general direction of the Dir ...

serving this Commissioner is the

Directorate-General for Energy The Directorate-General for Energy (DG Ener), or ENER, is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, created on 17 February 2010 when it was separated from the Transport DG, with which it had been combined since 2000. Mission The Director ...

, which was combined with Transport prior to 2010.

Miguel Arias Cañete (2014–2019)

A member of the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

People's Party, Arias served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment in the

Spanish Government gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua , image = , caption = Logo of the Government of Spain , headerstyle = background-color: #efefef , label1 = Role , data1 = Executive power , label2 = Established , da ...

from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections. Arias Cañete was nominated as

EU Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

for Energy and Climate Action in the Juncker Commission and took office on 1 November 2014.

Günther Oettinger (2010–2014)

Günther Oettinger Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digit ...

was appointed as the new Energy Commissioner in February 2010. However he was criticised for corruption and avoidance of EU law in his home state. His language skills have also been criticised and his nomination was met with confusion in Brussels.

Andris Piebalgs (2004–2010)

During his hearing with the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, Piebalgs stressed the importance of the environment in energy policy and was cautious of

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

. He received strong backing from the Parliament. He outlined his priorities as; # Achieving a true internal market # Energy efficiency: everyone can make a difference # Increase the share of renewable energy # Increased investments in technology # Safety and security of nuclear power # Make it easier for Member States to help each other in energy crisis # Developing external energy policy relations The European Union is an active supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, which it signed alongside its member-states. In March 2007 the Union committed itself to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020. There is also a desire to reduce dependency on Russian energy supplies following the disputes between Russia and Belarus and Ukraine. In April 2007 five southern European countries signed a deal to build an oil pipeline (the Pan-European Oil Pipeline) from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

to Italy which will help diversify energy sources.

List of commissioners

References

External links

Commissioner Šefčovič's term website

Andris Piebalgs interview on eGov monitor

Interview with Andris Piebalgs on Euractiv

Andris Piebalgs: The EU’s energy challenges
{{CommissionPortfolios

Energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

Commissioner European Atomic Energy Community