Prime Minister M. Topolanek´s adress to EU summit in Brussels 11. 12. 2008

I welcome this opportunity to offer you a short summary of our intentions in the sphere of energy. Three weeks before the commencement of the Czech presidency and immediately prior to the beginning of the meeting of the European Council seeking consensus regarding the climate-energy package. What I am about to say will perhaps not come as a surprise to you, since energy is a sphere in which plans are made covering decades and sudden changes of opinion are not very helpful. It is precisely this knowledge of the long-term outlook and prediction of future developments, including political developments, which is crucial for the development of the energy sector. At the same time, a sufficiency or lack of cheap, safe and stable energy supplies has an absolutely fundamental impact on standards of living and lifestyles in general, as well as the basic comfort of citizens. This is what makes reaching decisions on the climate-energy package so sensitive. Every political mistake in this sphere will exact a very high price for a long time to come. As the Prime Minister of the next country to hold the presidency of the EU Council, I sincerely hope that a reasonable agreement will be reached at this meeting of the European Council on the climate-energy package. An agreement that will not harm the energy sector or the industry of any member country. An agreement that will enable the long-term development of the energy sector, that will not restrict the resources that, especially at this time, we must have for investment if we are to overcome the long-term and growing insufficiency of electricity in Europe. It means a great deal to me that an agreement is reached and we move on, so that after the question of climate protection we can concentrate on other thorny problems: the questions of energy security and further market liberalisation, which are priorities of the Czech presidency, and the question of energy efficiency, which will be the focus of Sweden, the country that will hold the presidency after us. The more protracted the debates on climate protection and the longer the insecurity of market players regarding future developments, the worse things will be: the delay in planning future investments will be longer, as will the time it will take to find a common approach by the Union to energy security and to negotiations on supplies of energy raw materials with third countries. The Czech delegation will do its best at meetings of the European Council to ensure such an agreement is reached, not least because the Czech presidency will be preparing the Copenhagen Summit. In the post-Kyoto process the European Union should be aware of its priorities. It is essential that the whole world, including countries like China, Russia, India and Brazil, proceeds on a concerted basis. Actions taken by the European Union alone would not make any significant contribution to the environment, but on the contrary would fundamentally threaten the competitiveness of European companies. For the Czech presidency, energy is one of the three main priorities, the three “Es”: the economy, energy, and external relations. For me it a sphere in which my experience goes back further than it does in politics. When I say that we want to concentrate on strengthening distribution networks and on the diversification and security of energy supplies, I know what I am talking about. When I say that if we are concerned with energy security, climate protection and maintaining a reasonable price for electricity, we must rehabilitate nuclear energy, I am working on the basis of the realistic possibilities we have in front of us. It is equally clear that only rich, prosperous countries will manage to reduce emissions effectively. The ill-considered damaging of European economies would also result in damage being done to the environment. The Czech presidency wishes to be as realistic as possible as regards the energy sector. We want to find a balance between protecting the environment and the standard of living of citizens. We want to strengthen the European energy market and not weaken it. Along with other member countries we want to find the best solution, not only for the present moment in time, but for the future. I believe that we will manage this, not least thanks to effective dialogue with all of you sitting here today.