Tensions with Russia and Eastern neighbours concerning energy transit throughout the last decade as well as rapidly changing political landascape in the Mediterreanean region have moved the European Commission to advance a broader European energy agenda which aims to a certain extent to increase European integration and collective political action on this matter. A common EU energy policy has evolved around the common objective to ensure the uninterrupted physical availability of energy products and services on the market, at a price which = is affordable for all consumers.

The vision of the European Commission raises important questions about the role that the EU should play for promoting sustainable energy access in Europe and in neighbouring countries as well as in Sub- Saharan Africa. The ideas that energy should be traded on larger markets, predominatly produced from fossil fuels, and that centralised, private production and management of energy infrastructures is the way forward should be deconstructed and challenged before it is too late. Europe and the world are at a turning point in terms of what needs to be done to lead to a sustainable and more equitable future.

When hundreds of billions euro are channelled into larger fossil fuels based infrastructures, what is left then to boost an immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions inside the EU before reaching the point of non return in 2015 – as stated by the international scientific community - and to start the transition that will allow the EU to reduce the internal emissions by at least 30% by 2020? What are the human rights implications and the real social costs of the planned EU energy security strategy, and who will ultimately pay these?