DG Energy

The Directorate-General Energy describes itself as follows:

The Directorate-General for Energy is one of 33 policy-specific departments in the European Commission. It focuses on developing and implementing the EU's energy policy – secure, sustainable, and competitive energy for Europe.

DG Energy is organised into five Directorates consisting of 17 individual units.

Mission statement

The Directorate-General for Energy is responsible for developing and implementing a European energy policy under the political guidance of the European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič and Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.

The Directorate General develops and implements innovative policies aimed at:

• contributing to setting up an energy market providing citizens and business with affordable energy, competitive prices and technologically advanced energy services
• promoting sustainable energy production, transport and consumption in line with the EU 2020 targets and with a view to the 2050 decarbonisation objective
• enhancing the conditions for safe and secure energy supply in a spirit of solidarity between EU countries ensuring a high degree of protection for European citizens

In developing a European energy policy, the Directorate-General aims to support the Europe 2020 economic strategy which, for energy, is captured in the Energy 2020 strategy presented by the Commission in late 2010.

The Directorate-General carries out its tasks in many different ways. For example,

• it promotes the completion of the internal energy market;
• carries out energy market monitoring;
• supports the reinforcement of energy infrastructure, seeks to ensure that indigenous energy sources are exploited in safe and competitive conditions;
• enables markets to deliver agreed objectives, notably in efficiency and renewable energies;
• facilitates energy technology innovation;
• develops the most advanced legal framework for nuclear energy, covering safety, security and non-proliferation safeguards. Across all areas, it develops strategic analyses and short, medium and long term policies for the energy sector; monitors the implementation of existing EU law;
• encourages the exchange of best practices; provides information to stakeholders; and promotes and conducts an EU external energy policy.

All these activities are aided by expert input from the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), and the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).

An organigram of how the DG is structured can be found here.