Brussels intends to draft European Union-wide rules on tapping shale-gas reserves, Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Friday, in the face of environmental concerns. "I think we'll get a high level of acceptance when we have the same, European common standards, a high level of safety and security and quality for environmental interests," Oettinger told reporters during a visit to Wroclaw in south-west Poland.
"The best way is to Europeanise standard-efforts. We will bring some proposals to our member states maybe in the spring next year," he added. Speaking to a gathering of centre-right parties from across the 27-nation EU, Oettinger also said that he was seeking "environmental protection standards that enable member states to grant licences within a clear framework". Moves to tap gas from shale - sedimentary rock containing hydrocarbons - have sown deep divisions in Europe amid concerns that hydraulic fracturing used in its extraction is environmentally risky.
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