Energy is related to major environmental, economic and political challenges. A too important
energy dependency is considered as a risk factor for states that tries to find individual solutions.
But the most efficient strategy is the enhancement of a global policy at the scale of European
Union and neighbouring countries. It is also important to evaluate the contribution of each
sector(transport, industry, households) in energy consumption and to avoid a focus only on one
of them.
• The situation is much better if one considers only electricity, as most EU countries are characterised by a production exceeding the consumption and are net exporter of electric power. The only exceptions are Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• The division of energy consumption by great sectors demonstrates that transport is the first user of energy in biggest countries of western Europe ( France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain). The first sector is industry in Nordic countries and most of the New Member States. Households are also important consumers of energy, in particular in Poland and Germany where their share is greater than the one of Transport or Industry.
• As a whole, European Union is far from independence in terms of energy consumption. Only very few countries has a production of energy greater than consumption because of exploitation of resources of coal (Poland, Czech republic) or oil and gas (UK, The Netherlands) or because of the development of nuclear plant (Bulgaria) or renewable energies. The highest levels of energy dependency are observed in the Mediterranean countries, in Belgium and in Ireland.
• The situation is much better if one considers only electricity, as most EU countries are characterised by a production exceeding the consumption and are net exporter of electric power. The only exceptions are Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• The division of energy consumption by great sectors demonstrates that transport is the first user of energy in biggest countries of western Europe ( France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain). The first sector is industry in Nordic countries and most of the New Member States. Households are also important consumers of energy, in particular in Poland and Germany where their share is greater than the one of Transport or Industry.
