Conservative Energy Spokesman in the European Parliament, Dr Ian Duncan MEP, has warned that much-needed plans for an EU Energy Union must not remove flexibility from national governments to determine their own energy mix.
Dr Duncan was speaking as the European Parliament voted on its response to the European Commission's Energy Union strategy, published earlier this year.
Energy Union is an attempt to bring together the three key objectives of security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness.
Although Conservative MEPs support the objectives of the strategy, a coalition of socialist and green MEPs forced through amendments to the parliament's report which would bring in binding national targets on renewables and energy efficiency.
Dr Duncan said:
"I welcome much of the ambition behind the Energy Union, given the current fragmented nature of energy policy at EU level.
"However I could not support this report as it stands, as it proposes weakening the role of national governments, such as by requiring the Commission to participate in all national negotiations with non-EU countries on energy deals.
"This is something that is neither needed nor indeed requested by member states.
"The call for binding targets would prevent individual countries from reducing emissions in a way that is tailored to their specific needs.
"Energy Union must be about fully liberalising energy markets, otherwise Europe will continue to rely on the insecurity of imported energy, and customers will face ever higher energy costs."