EU Leaders Gently Urge Action on Joint Energy Plan

Leaders of the European Union gently urged action to standardize energy policy across the grouping, at the end of a summit on Thursday.

European Council president Herman van Rompuy, standing beside Commission president Manuel Barroso, told gathered representatives that the Union should step up efforts on a joint energy policy and programme.

"We need to keep working on several fronts, and with a common approach rather than 27 separate ones," he said. "Sustainable and affordable energy is key to keeping factories and jobs in Europe. We also know there is no major game-changer on the horizon."

The EU president referred to disparity in energy prices, and how Europe was lagging behind the US where energy prices had sunk because of the availability of cheap shale gas.

"Industry finds it hard to compete with foreign firms who pay half the price for electricity, like in the United States," Van Rompuy said at the close of an EU summit focused on energy and tax evasion.

Van Rompuy said member states "countries could also develop safe and sustainable ways to tap other resources - conventional and unconventional.

"Yes, this includes shale gas, which could become part of the energy mix for some member states, perhaps less for others."

The EU's 27 heads of state and government met amid fears the US-led shale boom will reshape the global economy.

"We need to secure good value energy supplies ... [which] involves making most use of indigenous resources, such as shale," said British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"We need to ensure that the old rules do not hold us back ... regulation must not get in the way", he said.

"Rising energy prices are a real problem," European Parliament head Martin Schulz told the one-day summit, putting EU companies "at a competitive disadvantage" against US firms.

"That is the bad news: if we do nothing, energy costs will continue to increase, and our energy dependence on third countries will increase with them," he said.

The formal report of the Council meeting referred to the need to use alternative sources of energy, but shale gas or oil were not mentioned. Nor was the contentious issue of hydraulic fracturing, fracking, which has been raising temperatures in many European countries.