The European Union (EU) summit which concluded on Friday agreed to begin work on a common approach to energy policy across the 25-member bloc.

The heads of government from the member states approved plans to establish a European energy strategy, which aims to liberalize the energy market in Europe, deal more effectively with external suppliers of oil and gas, improve security of supply, and open markets to competition.

The strategy also requires major investment in renewable energies by EU states to reduce the bloc's dependency on oil.

Mid-2007 was fixed for full energy market liberalization, and 2020 was set as a deadline for achieving a 20 percent energy saving.

The summit also required the EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana to table a proposal on the external relations strategy concerning energy.

"I'm very happy that our proposal was well-received," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the closing press conference.

Under Barroso's leadership, the EU's executive body tabled the common energy strategy to the summit meeting.

In a conclusion document issued by the summit, the EU leaders listed three objectives for the bloc's energy policy:

-- increasing security of supply;

-- ensuring the competitiveness of European economies and the affordability of energy supply to the benefit of both businesses and consumers;

-- promoting environmental sustainability.

In order to achieve these goals, the leaders believed that the 25-member bloc should:

-- Ensure transparency and non-discrimination of markets;

-- Be consistent with competition rules;

-- Be consistent with public service obligations;

-- Fully respect EU member state's sovereignty over primary energy sources and choice of energy-mix.

"Europe is not built in a day," said Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel who chaired the EU summit, as his country is holding the EU presidency.

He said it was not possible to set up a mature EU-wide energy policy "within a few hours" or "within a few days."

However, he noted that the EU leaders had "provided the impetus " to the strategy and the summit was "very successful."

Before the summit, economic protectionism had been widely reported by the western media following a dispute between France and Italy over Italian energy giant Enel's failed merger with the French company, Suez.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair criticized economic protectionism, urging the EU to take more action to liberalize the energy markets.

"The argument for liberalization has not been totally won but the direction of travel is right," he said, citing 10 Downing Street as an example of the benefits of liberalized energy markets.

"The electricity in Number 10 Downing Street is supplied by a French company, the water by a German company, the gas is supplied by four companies, three of which are not British," he said.

"Liberalized energy markets and more open markets are good for business and for consumers right across Europe. This argument is being won by those who want to open up to liberalization," he added.

Source: Xinhua