EU Seeks to Lower Energy Consumption

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, center, gestures while speaking with new EU Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Meglena Kuneva, right, and new EU Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban, left, during their first weekly EU Commission meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Yves Herman, Pool) (Yves Herman - AP)

"We consider it unacceptable, this kind of event," Barroso said. "We will make this very clear to our Russian and other partners."

He would not comment on reports that Russia and Belarus had resolved their dispute.

Surging world demand for limited stocks of oil and gas is likely to send prices _ and the EU's energy import costs _ spiraling in future decades.

The EU is proposing that 20 percent of all its energy should come from renewable power by 2020, and a tenth of vehicle fuel from biofuels. It calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to limit global warming and prevent serious damage caused by climate change.

EU Energy chief Andris Piebalgs said the EU wants to set binding targets for the first time, suggesting a massive boost in low-carbon, homegrown power such as wind and solar energy to cut reliance of imported fossil fuels.

The European Commission will invest 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) over the next six years for research into renewable energies. It will increase research into cleaning up coal-burning power plants and developing technologies prevent carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere.

Priority will be given to improving energy efficiency so that vehicles, appliances, homes, and factories burn less fuel _ using methods ranging from improved insulation to cleaner engines. The EU hopes that plan alone can ensure it burns 13 percent less energy by 2020, with annual savings of 100 billion euros ($130 billion) and around 860 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Barroso said the EU's executive arm would respect the right of each nation to determine its own course.

"It's not up to us to tell the member states whether in their energy mix they should have more or less nuclear or none at all," he said. "What is important is to make progress toward an economy that is less dependent on carbon."