EU RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY FOR SMART CITIES

The European Union energy policy has been more and more focused on how to become more friendly with the environment and looked for efficient measures to assure the protection of the environment and for sustain the development of the cities through participatory governance: human capital, communication infrastructure (including informational communication systems), economic growth and high quality of life. Because the energy sector has the biggest share of total Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), the attention was directed to this sector. Although the EU member states claim that they support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, it is important to see concrete actions into achieving this goal. Our study is structured in two parts: the first one, that includes an analysis of main energy indicators like energy production, energy consumption and share of renewable energy sources (RES) in gross final consumption, based on data available on Eurostat for 2019 and a second part that includes an analysis of the future perspectives and the goals of the EU Member States according to their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP). The results show that the energy policy is a major factor that has great impact on the development of the smart cities, creating the added value for society.