The Parliament: EU energy security strategy fails to secure parliament's support

Following the rejection of European People's Party (EPP) deputy Algirdas Saudargas' report on a European energy security strategy earlier this week, MEPs Miroslav Poche, Ashley Fox and Neoklis Sylikiotis comment on why they think parliament failed to reach an agreement.

Miroslav Poche (CZ) is parliament's Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group shadow rapporteur on the European energy security strategy 

"I am very sorry that parliament has dismissed the report on the European energy security strategy. It seems that some of its proposals were just too ambitious, namely the strong support for binding targets on energy efficiency, or too controversial, like nuclear energy, which has been a divisive issue among MEPs for years.

A moratorium on hydraulic fracking is another sensitive issue and, despite the fact that an amendment in favour of a moratorium was adopted, it left some people with a bad taste in their mouth, leading to them voting against the report. 

The votes against spanned the entire political spectrum, but for very different reasons. Sadly, not even EPP group members supported their own rapporteurAlgirdasSaudargas, as they mostly abstained or voted down his proposal.

Read additional views from MEPs Ashley Fox and Neoklis Sylikiotis HERE