In 1997 the Commission established a target to increase the overall share of renewable energy to 12 percent by 2010. In March 2007, leaders of the 27 EU countries committed to an even more ambitious target of 20 percent of all EU energy consumption to come from renewable resources by 2020.
However, analysts say it will be difficult for the EU to meet the targets; until now only a few Member States are set to meet the EU target.
The risk of the EU to fall short of their renewable energy targets was discussed in Jane Burgermeister's article "EU to Fall Just Short of 2010 Renewable Target" published on 31 August 2007 by the Renewable Energy News and Information Service "RenewableEnergyAccess.com".
Stephanie Schlegel, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, was consulted on the conditions of success to meeting energy targets in the EU 27. She stressed that a key factor here will be the changing of energy consumption patterns, as electricity demands are still rising across Europe. Also, according to Schlegel, progress towards EU wide targets will largely depend on the results of the negotiations regarding which country has to meet which specific target.