Just a month before the United Nations' COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, and on the heels of the formation of a joint EU-US Energy Council announced at the EU-US Summit, European and U.S. scholars and policy makers came together at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University to assess the European Union's progress toward a common energy policy.

Organized by the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE) in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, the symposium also delineated obstacles to a unified EU policy.

EUCE Director Vicki Birchfield and Professor John Duffield from Georgia State University, hosted Luisa Ragher, Head of Transport, Energy, Environment and Nuclear Matters Section for the European Commission's Delegation to Washington, along with scholars from Germany, Britain, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. These researchers were joined by Ivan Allen College public policy and international affairs professors Marilyn Brown, Paul Baer, Adam Stulberg, and Janelle Knox-Hayes for the two-day symposium.

In the past decade, the EU has made rapid progress towards developing a common energy policy, even adopting an ambitious and comprehensive Energy Action Plan based on the EU Commission's 2007 Communication "An Energy Policy for Europe."

The symposium assessed conditions and events that influenced the progress on forming a common EU energy policy and historical, national, and functional perspectives. Additional commentary was provided by Jay Hakes, Executive Director of the Carter Presidential library, an author and expert on U.S. energy policy. Output from the symposium will be an edited book by Birchfield and Duffield with articles by symposium participants from nine European countries on key issues including renewable sources of energy, cutting emissions, nuclear power and energy efficiency.

In its mandate to connect Georgia and Europe and educate the local community about EU affairs, the EUCE also collaborated with the Atlanta Regional Commission on their annual State of the Regions breakfast and arranged for Ragher to join their policy and energy forum as a panelist. Ragher spoke to the 900-strong audience about how the EU influences global debates on climate change, renewable energy, and energy security. (A video link to this panel resides on the www.atlantafiftyforward.com website and is accessible through the panel video link below. Play the video entitled "Panel Discussion: Susan Hoffman, moderator")