This sets out, in five interrelated policy dimensions, the goals of an energy union – and the detailed steps the Juncker Commission will take to achieve it, including new legislation to redesign and overhaul the electricity market, ensuring more transparency in gas contracts, substantially developing regional cooperation as an important step towards an integrated market, with a stronger regulated framework, new legislation to ensure the supply for electricity and gas, increased EU funding for energy efficiency or a new renewables energy package, focusing European RI energy strategy ...[+++], reporting annually on the 'State of the Energy Union', just to name a few.

The project must represent an important contribution to the Union’s objectives, for instance by being of major importance for the Europe 2020 strategy, the European Research Area, the European strategy for KETs (10), the Energy Strategy for Europe (11), the 2030 framework for climate and energy policies (12), the European Energy Security Strategy (13), the Electronics Strategy for Europe, the Trans-European Transport and Energy networks, the Union’s flagship initiatives su ...[+++]ch as the Innovation Union (14), Digital Agenda for Europe (15), the Resource Efficient Europe (16), or the Integrated Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era (17).

The 7th EAP should build on policy initiatives in the Europe 2020 strategy (6), including the Union climate and energy package (7), the Commission Communication on a Roadmap for moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050 (8), the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (9), the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (10), the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative (11) and the European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development.

An integral pillar of Europe's Energy and Climate Change policies, the SET-Plan aims to accelerate the development and deployment of low carbon technologies through a coherent set of actions, including Joint Programming.

The Protocol's provisions are also in line with the Community's policy on energy, as set out in the White Paper for a ‘Community Strategy and Action Plan’, the Green Paper ‘Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply’, Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market (11), Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on the energy pe ...[+++]rformance of buildings (12) and Decision No 1230/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2003 adopting a multiannual programme for action in the field of energy: ‘Intelligent Energy — Europe’ (2003-2006) (13).

According to a previous Commission Green Paper on Energy Efficiency, the European Union can save as much as 20% of its energy in a cost-efficient manner, the equivalent of €60 billion per year. It may also create more than 1 million new jobs by boosting energy efficiency and energy savings. This Green Paper underlines the capability of the Transport sector to save energy. After this summer, the European Commission will present an Energy Efficiency Action Plan with concrete measures to reach the objective.