Spain will push for a common European market in energy and eCommerce during its six-month EU presidency, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero told the European Parliament yesterday (20 January), adding that the EU’s ’2020 Strategy’ for economic and social renewal would form the cornerstone of his tenure.

Presenting his country’s EU presidency priorities in Strasbourg, Zapatero made a passionate appeal for reducing the Union’s energy dependence, which he said had increased by 9% in the last decade.

These imports, which amounted to 67 billion euros per year, represented wasted monies that the EU was “transferring to other countries,” the Spanish premier warned.
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