Chairman of High-Level Group: Edmond Alphandéry

Series: Externally Published Work

In order to achieve the EU’s energy and climate objectives, sustained investments will be required across the energy value chain, including power generation, gas pipelines, electricity transmission grids as well as distribution grids. The European Commission has estimated that over €1 trillion will need to be invested in the energy sector by 2020, with €200 billion for transmission grids and gas pipelines alone.

In the spring of 2015, Edmond Alphandéry took the initiative to create a High Level Group of experienced Europeans, drawn mainly from the energy and the financial private sectors, to survey the roadblocks to cross-border energy infrastructure and to make proposals to the European Commission with a view to improving the environment for these investments.

Their report focuses on five points: 1) the need for a better integrated European market; 2) the role that could be played by the European authorities to improve the environment for cross-border investments in energy infrastructure; 3) initiatives to take at the regional level to help remove local roadblocks to these projects; 4) proposed ways to reduce risks and make them more attractive to investors and last but not least 5) the design of financing schemes that could enhance private investors’ appetite for these kinds of assets.

Edmond Alphandéry is Chairman of the CEPS Board of Directors and a member of the Board of ENGIE. He is former Minister of the Economy of France.