U.S. Shale Boom Prompts EU to Press for Single Energy Market

European Union leaders urged faster integration of the bloc’s power and natural-gas markets to lower energy prices as the U.S. shale-gas revolution widens the EU’s cost gap with its largest trading partner.

The 27-nation EU must accelerate efforts to implement energy legislation aimed at breaking down national barriers by 2014 and develop interconnections to end the isolation of some member states from networks by 2015, according to a statement adopted by the leaders’ summit in Brussels today.