Andris Piebalgs - Definition and Overview

Andris Piebalgs (born 17 September 1957) is a Latvian politician and diplomat, currently serving as European Commissioner for Energy.

Early career

Born in Valmiera and educated at the University of Latvia in Riga, Piebalgs worked as a teacher in Valmiera in the 1980s. In the early years of Latvia's independence from the USSR he held the posts of education minister from 1990 to 1993, and finance minister from 1994 to 1995. He was Latvia's ambassador to neighbouring Estonia from 1995 to 1997, and to the European Union from 1998 to 2003, playing a prominent role in the country's accession talks. Piebalgs was joint founder of the centrist Latvian Way party.

In addition to his native Latvian he is fluent in English, German, French, and Russian, and has basic knowledge of Estonian.

European Commission

Before taking up his current post, Piebalgs ran the office of Sandra Kalniete, Latvia's member of the Prodi Commission for its last few months in office. He was nominated for the Barroso Commission by the Latvian government as a replacement for Ingrida Udre, who failed to win the support of the European Parliament in her selection hearing for the position of Taxation and Customs Union Commissioner. He also replaced the Hungarian nominee László Kovács who had been set to take charge of the energy portfolio but failed to convince MEPs of his competence for the role during his original selection hearing. Piebalgs took office along with the rest of the Barroso Commission on 22 November 2004.

Selection hearing

Questioned by the European Parliament, Piebalgs stressed the importance of environmental considerations in energy policy, and announced his intention to pursue a policy framework based on limiting growth in demand for energy while increasing diversity of supply.

He was cautious on the question of support for nuclear energy, and said that he favoured an EU-wide regulatory framework for nuclear safety as a way of increasing the industry’s transparency and levels of public acceptance. He also said that, "strict application of provisions of the Euratom Treaty is essential."

Piebalgs expressed his unhappiness there was not yet a 'level playing field' for competition in the energy and gas industries across the Union. He assigned high priority to reducing overall energy demand, especially by improving the energy efficiency of buildings, promoting the long-term development of hydrogen as a fuel source, improving the competitiveness of renewable energy sources through economic measures, and supporting the development of nuclear fusion and the ITER project.

Following his hearing Piebalgs received strong backing from across the political spectrum, including the Greens, who had previously described László Kovács's performance on energy issues as "an offence to the parliament".

External link

• Official website (http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/piebalgs/index_en.htm)