European Commission Launches Energy Crisis Early Warning System

13 May 2007

The European Union is establishing an energy crisis alert system called NESCO (Network of Energy Security Correspondents), involving energy experts, EU embassies, the Directorate General for External Relations crisis room, and crisis management staff of the EU Foreign Affairs Committee. NESCO members met in Brussels last week for the first time, according to an official announcement.

The European Council approved the NESCO network last December as tensions escalated between Russia’s state-owned Gazprom and the country of Belarus over natural gas prices. The early warning network will be discussed at the Russian-European Union summit in Samara, Russia this week.

Russia is the largest energy supplier to the EU, delivering about one-fourth of the Union’s natural gas and oil supplies. 70% of energy imported to the European Union is expected to come from Russia by 2030.