The European Union is on target to deliver 90% of its Energy Union Strategy by the end of this year, making 2016 the year of delivery, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič said at a conference organised by the Jacques Delors Institute at the end of February.

In his speech at the conference, Mr Šefčovič looked back at what had been achieved since the framework strategy was adopted, and highlighted four main conclusions. First of all, he noted that the EU had managed to show sustained leadership in terms of the transition to a low-carbon economy. However, he cautioned that a lot remains to be done. At EU level the ETS system needs to be reinforced and support provided to other countries in building carbon markets. Furthermore, work needs to be carried out to link these up at global level. He noted that a new Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) had been adopted in September to create an enabling environment for investment in the most promising low-carbon technologies.

Secondly, the Vice President said that the aim is to have an energy transition that is socially fair and consumer-centric. With this in mind, the Commission adopted a Communication on the design of the electricity market and a "New Deal" for consumers last summer, to ensure that vulnerable consumers are not left behind and that energy transition creates jobs and benefits the greatest number of people, not only those who can afford it.

Thirdly, the EU has remained on top of the political challenges facing it, Mr Šefčovič noted. “With the recently adopted energy supply package we set out a wide range of measures to strengthen the EU's resilience to gas supply disruptions and thus reduce our external vulnerability,” he said.

Finally, Vice-President Šefčovič reminded that in November 2015, he presented the first annual State of the Energy Union, which he called the “first step of an Energy Union governance process” aimed at making sure that Member States also take ownership of energy transition through their Climate and Energy Plans.

The Vice-President outlined a ‘5 D’ model for the future of the Energy Union. The 5 Ds are to continue with the Decarbonisation of Europe’s economies; bring even more Democratisation to energy production and consumption; profit from market Digitisation to optimise energy use and efficiency; improve the Diversification of energy supply; and help Europe’s innovators to deliver on new technologies to speed up transition through progressive Disruption of traditional energy cycles.