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Welcome to the EEF website
The EEF provides an opportunity for its members to gain a better understanding of energy and energy related issues, through frank and informal discussions on the immensely varied issues present within the world of energy today.
EEF next events
09-03-2010 : Gas Storage : Enhancing security of supply and facilitating market development At the invitation of GIE (Gas Infrastructure Europe)
10-03-2010 : Power Plant Basics At the invitation of EPPSA (European Power Plant Suppliers Association)
In January 2008, I wrote an editorial with this same title that mainly covered the historical aspects of the subject. As the recent past is part of history, I emphasised the following: “Nowadays, given the many action proposals submitted to us, our President Giles Chichester enforces a specific and rigorous procedure for defining our programmes. Proposals are sent to us every 6 months by prospective sponsors. These proposals are considered at a meeting of our bureau (President, Treasurer and Vice-Presidents), then by our Technical and Industrial Advisory Committee comprising all our Associate members (Industrialists) and our Board of Directors (MEPs). The President then makes the final, impartial selection of the proposals we are able to accommodate within our schedule. This process eradicates any favouritism.” This is still true today. We are periodically asked by some where our success, envied by lobby groups, comes from. The answer is clear and simple: we are not a lobby group! As accurate as it is, this incisive answer is based on facts that deserve to be explained.
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The extreme diversity of the energy sector and the large number of actors involved compared to other industrial and commercial sectors should be noted. It has several dimensions such as, for example, the technology represented by thermonuclear fusion whose development has not yet moved beyond the project stage. At the other extreme is the industry's geopolitical dimension where we are tangling with Russia, our primary hydrocarbon products supplier, and with China, our main competitor in this field. There are also primary energy producers and energy processors (electricity, etc.). There are, of course, transporters and distributors as well as energy equipment builders. There are even market regulators. And we shouldn't forget the consumers! Our association has 80 members from the energy sector known as “Associate Members”. In addition, our “Active Members” include 50 MEPs from a number of different nations. Each has their own opinions. When the active and associate members of the European Energy Forum come together, they do not automatically, or deliberately, share common trends in thought.
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To the specificity of the energy sector which I have briefly described above must be added that of our organisation. As a result of its basic and original design, our association is managed by Active Members (MEPs) and relies for is existence on contributions from Associate Members (primarily industrialists). This setup has worked effectively for 15 years thanks to the mutual trust that exists between these two types of members. They can communicate with each other when needed through the Forum team which is in permanent contact with both Associate and Active Members. In addition, views are exchanged twice a year, formally if required, during the meetings of the Industrial and Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC). It is at these times that members express and strengthen mutual trust. *
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There is also a rule, acknowledged and followed by all members, that ensures that the events we organise are an opportunity for their sponsors to present and offer for debate any current situations and issues which may potentially affect the European Union's energy policy. These events are never used to promote the sponsors. What's more, all of our members are invited to all of our events and, as a result, all points of view can be expressed and discussed. This ensures that any Associate Member who, hypothetically, strayed from actual fact in their presentation would immediately be contradicted and corrected.
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It is this concept and the way it is implemented that guarantees that, in the eyes of third parties, and of the European Commission in particular, the European Energy Forum is not a lobby group.
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This specific nature of « non lobby group » is recognised by the European Commission. The Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) designated one of its civil servants, the highly considered Mr Samuele Furfari, who is also professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, as our contact person with the institution. The Commission allows him to devote some of his work time, his competences and expertise to the European Energy Forum. The EEF will continue to give an added value to what M. Oettinger called the "europeanisation of the energy policy".
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