FAREWELL: 10 YEARS IN EUROPEAN ENERGY POLITICS
By Morten Helveg Petersen, Member of the European Parliament
and Steel Community. Energy politics and Europe somehow go hand in hand, and during the constitution of the European Parliament over the summer of 2014, I won my seat on the ITRE committee and went to work. The Paris Agreement and the European Energy Union In 2016, European leaders gave a handshake on the decision to create a European Energy Union. Ever since, the energy un- ion has been a point of orientation in the ITRE committee, with numerous law initiatives pointing towards the internal market for electricity. The European Energy Union agreement followed shortly after the Paris Agreement emerged in 2015. This historical global accord involved 196 UN member states committing to limit- ing temperature increases to less than 1.5 degrees. Although experts across the world today find it unlikely that we will be able to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement, it still marks the starting point of the global climate policy environment we are surrounded by today. The Paris Agreement also heightened awareness of climate issues and emphasized the need for mar- ket-based green energy solutions. Between the Paris Agreement and the Energy Union, it was straightforward to envision significant market expansion, and it became a key issue policy for me to pave the way for green Danish climate solutions going forward. Many Danish com-
The European elections in June 2024 mark the end of my ca- reer as a Member of the European Parliament after 10 years of service. It turned out to be a time period in which energy policy rose to the top of Europe's political agenda. On the brink of goodbye, these are my reflections. More than anything, the story of EU politics over the past ten years is the story of the rise of energy politics on the political agenda. I like to recall how energy- and church policy were at rock bottom on the popularity scale amongst Danish politi- cians when I entered the Danish parliament in 1998. Not sexy, no profile, basically, nobody wanted to work on those commit- tees. Today, of course, energy politics have left church policy behind and crawled to the top of the agenda. Energy politics is at the centre of Europe’s security situation as well as citizens’ every- day life. I did not predict the magnitude of this development when elected to the European Parliament in 2014. Still, I did aim straight for a seat in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). Although, at the time, climate policy was far from being the all-consuming societal topic it is today, it was an issue somehow lurking on the horizon. Also, as a keen supporter of the European community, I was never blind to the historical fact that the European Union was created on top of energy cooperation in the European Coal
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