A year and a half after the European Commission released its shale gas recommendation for those member states eager to extract the unconventional gas, the sector’s future is still in limbo. There are more questions than answers as interest groups battle with the same arguments over a topic that slowly fell off the radar over the last year in Europe.
This dynamic was clear at a stakeholder event organised by the EU executive on 29 June, meant to gather views…
Shale gas survey
A flash Eurobarometer survey on shale gas was also released during the event, focusing on people’s perceptions on the topic. Here are some highlights:- the study covered 12 regions in six member states where shale gas projects have been permitted or are in an advanced state of planning- two regions each in the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Romania and Spain- 6,000 interviews in total during the month of June- 58% of people said they have heard about shale gas projects in the regions, while 42% said they had not- 44% (of both groups) believe shale gas project could bring new opportunities in their region- 54% of those who have heard about projects in their region say shale gas comes with challenges, while only 47% of those from the second group believe so- there is a also a large discrepancy between regional answers- people in the Polish regions strongly believe decisions about shale gas explorations should be left to the member states, while people in the Spanish regions believe the EU should ban the practice