Causes Conference on The future of refining in the EU: safeguarding competitiveness

The European Commissioner for Energy, Gunther Oettinger, invited Maria da Graça Carvalho to participate as a speaker in the Conference on The future of refining in the EU: safeguarding competitiveness, which took place in the Berlaymont Building, Brussels.

The aim of the Conference on EU Refining was to discuss the potential means to address EU refining's competitiveness challenges and hosted a broad panel of stakeholders with representatives of Member States, Commission, Members of the European Parliament and Industry.

During her intervention, Maria da Graça Carvalho gave the European Parliament view on the importance of safeguarding and further promoting industrial competitiveness in the EU and tried to identify some of the ways in which the European Parliament might help meet the challenges that the European refining industry is currently confronted with. 

Among the speakers were Philip Lowe, Director General, DG Energy, European Commission, who gave the welcome, made the introduction and the conclusions of the conference; Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director, International Energy Agency who spoke about Market developments in EU refining and supply of petroleum products, challenges and outlook for the sector. 

Edmund Hosker, Director International Energy and Energy Security, Department of Energy and Climate Change, United Kingdom, made an intervention on A refining Member State view and approach to dealing with the challenges of the EU refining sector

Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, delivered a speech on the importance of a strong EU industrial policy to safeguard competitiveness; Commissioner Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, made a presentation of the Communication on EU industrial policy and on refining fitness check.

Thierry Saniez, Délégué Général, CLCV (French national consumer association), spoke about the importance of safeguarding competitiveness to meet consumer demand at a competitive price.