Energy in Europe: Demand, Forecast, Control and Supply

Abstract

Adequate and reasonably-priced energy supplies are fundamental to the functioning of the economy and to the stability of the society of all countries. Energy questions, therefore, have become of steadily increasing importance during the last 20 years and have been charged, in particular in times of actual and threatened difficulty, with the highest political significance both nationally and in the field of foreign relations. More fundamentally, the standards of public services and the level of business activity and hence employment can decline or remain at an unacceptably low level if the energy situation is such as to jeopardise world trade and economic growth.