Short presentation for potential partners and participants

2004 is the year of the European Union's enlargement. This will not only bring benefits such as increased economic growth to the EU countries, but also many challenges. One of the major challenges concerns the future of Energy. Many parameters have to be considered e.g.: the security of energy supply, the contribution to global sustainable development, the energy dimension of climate change, and the rational use of energy. Supporting renewable energies and new energy technologies is the first and the foremost in confronting this challenge.

The active participation of research and business communities of the New Member States to the achievement of the European Research Area already contributes to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy (and its 3% GDP target for research expenditure by 2010). But this participation is still rather limited and should be maximized as soon as possible, especially in the field of R&D.

New national energy strategies have been discussed or are still being defined in France, in Germany and in Poland. During a first conference called "The Future of Energy in Europe" in Paris in last September, German and French representatives of Research, Industry, and Administration had the opportunity to compare their owns strategies and try to identify new fields of cooperation. This conference was organised by AFAST-DFGWT - The French-German Association for Science and Technology (www.dfgwt.org, Aktionen 2003).

On the same day, the National Contact Point of EU Research Programmes in Poland and the Centre of Excellence CENERG/IEN (Warsaw) organised together in Warsaw the "Central Eastern European Conference and Research Potential for European Energy Sector". The objectives of the conference were to review the present energy situation in the region as well as the energy sector's research potential, establish international research networks, and present the EU energy policy (http://www.ien.com.pl/cenerg/activities/events.htm).