The document, seen by Reuters, is the latest text from the European Commission to urge all 27 member nations to put collective energy needs above domestic agendas. It could rile countries such as Germany, which has unilaterally decided to phase out all its atomic plants by 2022.

In addition, Italy has voted to ban nuclear power for decades.

Poland, as holder of the rotating EU presidency is hosting two days of informal EU energy minister talks in Wroclaw, southwestern Poland.

It confirmed Germany’s abandoning nuclear power and the need for EU-wide infrastructure were on the agenda of a breakfast debate on Tuesday.

“We emphasize the need of shifting toward a lower emissions economy,” Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak said.

“We emphasize the need for a comprehensive approach.”

Poland’s Deputy Economy Minister Hanna Trojanowska said earlier this month the nation would not abandon its nuclear plans even though an opinion poll found 51 percent of Poles were opposed to them.

Nuclear-generated electricity is carbon-free and many governments have viewed as it as crucial to reducing planet-warming emissions while maintaining reliable supplies.

The European Union’s reaction to Japan’s series of tsunamis and the resulting nuclear disaster early this year has been to order stress tests to determine the safety of nuclear reactors.

A commission “support paper” drawn up ahead of Tuesday’s breakfast talks said less nuclear power reinforced the need for an EU-wide power grid, which the European Commission aims to achieve by 2014.

“This has highlighted that in an interconnected energy system and in the internal market all member states are affected by such decisions taken at national level and therefore have legitimate interests in ensuring they are effectively coordinated,” it said.

“Until now, there has not been a systematic effort to bring national policy-makers together to coordinate their approaches to energy generation or to support each other and the commission with their views and experience.”

European Commission ambitions to increase its oversight have rankled with some member countries and the private sector.

Earlier this month, a draft document obtained by Reuters on “engaging with partners beyond our borders” showed EU proposals to increase the European Commission’s mandate to be involved in energy negotiations between member countries and those outside the bloc.

Analysts interpreted that as an attempt to prevent cosy bilateral ties between big gas consumers, such as Germany and Italy, and their major supplier Russia.

Germany’s ties with Russia are of keen interest to Poland and Russia’s reliability as a supplier is likely also to feature in this week’s talks.

Poland, a traditional transit state that has clashed with Russia over transit fees, is bypassed by the new Nord Stream pipeline to ship Russian gas to Germany.

The launch of the pipeline has coincided with an upsurge in tension between another transit state Ukraine, which has revived memories of the 2009 pricing spat that halted supplies to the European Union.

Shared infrastructure could maximize available supplies, helping to mute the impact of disruption, as well moving the EU closer to a target of a 20 percent improvement in efficiency by 2020.

Environment Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has said that of the EU’s three 2020 targets, the efficiency goal — which unlike the other two is non-binding — is the one the EU is least likely to hit.

The other two are a 20 percent cut in carbon emissions compared with 1990 levels and to derive 20 percent of energy from renewable sources.

Environmentalists have questioned the willingness of Poland, heavily reliant on coal, to adopt a greener agenda. But Pawlak reiterated on Monday an earlier pledge that Poland would meet all three of its 2020 targets.