Photo Gallery Europe's Energy Questions
Günther Oettinger has been the European Commissioner for Energy in Brussels since February 2011. He is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union. In a SPIEGEL interview published this week, he argues that Germany should create a ministry that is responsible exclusively for energy policy.
Members of the media visit reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was destroyed after last March's tsunami triggered a meltdown. The disaster jolted European energy policymakers, prompting the 27 member states to back "stress tests" on European nuclear power plants to evaluate the threat from both natural and man-made causes.
Germany long aimed to be a front-runner in the solar energy industry but a spate of bad news has stifled optimism in the sector. First, the government announced plans to slash subsidies for electricity from solar energy. Then the share prices of solar-panel makers plunged.
