Maria da Graça Carvalho participated as a speaker in the European Ideas Network EIN seminar which took place today at the European Parliament.
The seminar was dedicated to energy and its objective was to debate how the completion of the internal energy market could be a reality. Through its Communication "Making the Internal Energy Market Work" the European Commission has presented a wide range of challenges that lay ahead such as enforcement of current EU energy legislation, further empowering consumers, fighting price regulation, creating capacity mechanisms and reviewing the way in which we promote renewable energies. The EIN seminar debated in particular two of the action lines outlined in the communication's action plan: "Making EU Energy Systems Fit for the Future" and "Ensuring Appropriate State Intervention".
Maria da Graça Carvalho intervened in the round table "Making the European Energy Market a Reality" which was chaired by Pilar del Castillo MEP.
The main focus of Ms Carvalho´s speech was on the restructuring and coordination of Europe's energy policy at EU level. For her, "it is important, to improve existing technologies whilst fostering new technologies. In the process, we must offer industry legislative certainty over a time span that extends beyond 2020".
Ms Carvalho also believes that "the necessary consolidation of the internal market includes extending our infrastructure whilst implementing internal market law and enforcing competition rules".
The EIN is an open pan-European think-tank sponsored by the EPP Group, the largest political group in the European Parliament, which has rapidly emerged as an important meeting-point and intellectual cross-roads for the centre-right in European politics.