Hungary hopes to be the power behind energy talks

4 February EU summit to focus on energy issues.

The special EU summit dedicated to energy and innovation on 4 February was not Hungary’s idea, but the country will try to put its stamp on the meeting, which it bills as one of the most important events in the diary during its presidency.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, decided last year to hold a special summit on energy, as part of his mission to get European leaders talking about long-term strategic issues, rather than simply jumping from one crisis to another. The topic of innovation was added to February’s agenda, after being bumped off the agenda of the December EU leaders’ summit.

Expanded network

Tamás Fellegi, Hungary’s minister in charge of energy and climate change, wants EU leaders to take decisions to build new priority energy infrastructure projects. Hungary says that it is ready to sign an agreement on a new energy interconnector with Slovakia, the first in a chain of agreements that it hopes will lead to a connected energy network from Poland to the Balkans. Getting agreement on new projects is not trivial. The European Commission estimates that €1 trillion of investment will be needed on new pipelines and interconnectors by 2020.

Hungary also wants to see EU leaders promise to make more efforts on energy efficiency, the cheapest way to reduce carbon emissions, but one that is falling well below its potential.

The innovation strand of the summit is being driven by the Commission, which wants EU leaders to sign up to its “innovation union” plan, a wish-list of ideas to improve Europe’s research and development.

Hungary will certainly want to remind the rest of Europe that Budapest hosts the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a newly created body that is meant to help European researchers work together on big projects.