Inthe EU, which accounts for 16% of global energy consumption, it has a largelyoutsourcing structure, both in terms of oil and natural gas. The domesticresources of the EU are very limited and meet half of their energy needsthrough imports. Import dependency ratio, which is 80.2% in petroleum, is 54.
5%in natural gas and 38.2% in coal (European Commission, 2006a). Inthe process that has taken place since the 1990s, the European Union has begunto set targets around the Union, in support of research on renewable energy, aswell as creating policies for greater use of renewable energy in the energymarket. The Green Book, prepared by the European Commission in 1996, focused onthe benefits of renewable energy sources. The Green Paper stressed thatrenewable energy will have a positive impact on the European Union’s dependenceon energy imports and on regional development and employment issues. It alsoaimed to increase the share of renewable energy sources in total energyproduction to 12% by 2010.
The White Paper, prepared by the European Commissionin 1997, underlined that renewable energy can play an important role inreducing CO2 emissions, in addition to energy security. The White Paperpredicted that by 2010, 23.5% of electricity generation would be supplied fromrenewable energy sources, primarily hydroelectricity.
However, the EuropeanCommission’s targets for both the Green Book and the White Paper for 2010 havenot been met, and the share of renewable energy in total energy output hasincreased from 6% to almost 9%. The Union has not reached the targeted figuresbecause it considers the Member States’ energy policies as part of theirnational interests and decides on their own national interests rather than theCommission’s objectives (Kantörün, 2010). TheEU has increased its renewable energy resource utilization targets set by theKyoto Protocol to 22% in the 2001 77 EC directive, and countries have settheir own targets in this direction (EC, 2001). Within the EU countries, Swedenand Austria have targeted the highest rates (60-78%) for 2010 in the use ofrenewable energy sources. In countries with high energy consumption such asGermany, UK, France and Italy, the targets vary between 10-25%. Comparing theenergy production statistics of 1997 with the targets of 2010, it is seen thatthe UK and Belgium are over 5 times higher than the increase targets and thelowest increase targets are 1-1.
5% in Portugal, Austria, Finland, France, Spainand Sweden seen. The rate of increase in the (Bacak, S. Külcü, R. and Ekinci,K. 2009).
