Kaja Kallas, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Madam President, progress has been made on the Energy Union but there is still a lot to do to call the European Union also the Energy Union. When we look at the assessment of 2016 on discrimination of cross-border flows, the results are quite striking. On 31 border directions, less than 51% of the benchmark capacity was offered to the market. Some borders even have zero percent, for instance between Germany and Poland, or no more than 12% between Germany and Denmark.

Many Member States, including my own, still do not take interconnections into account in their capacity assessment nor energy security. But then we see plans for expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline, which will increase our dependence on Russian gas, or we see some countries keeping up with the subsidies for fossil fuel production.

Regional cooperation, looking at the capacity across borders, is crucial to improve the efficiency of our energy systems. When it comes down to details, from infrastructure projects to giving decision-making powers, to regional cooperation, progress still remains a struggle. We have to look at the reasons why countries look at it this way, but we still have to push interconnections and cooperation between Member States.