Sustainable development policy in the field of renewable energy sources – the European perspective

The aim of the article is to review EU policy towards renewable energy sources (RES) and their assessment, taking into account the principles of sustainable development. The presented development is of a theoretical nature. Therefore, the basic research method is the analysis of available sources, such as statistical data, EU legal acquis and reports. Many aspects are touched upon in implementing the principles of sustainable development in energy policy. For this reason, the following have been selected for analysis: the share of RES in the overall energy balance, the energy mix of renewable energy sources and the use of soft instruments supporting RES. As a result of the analysis, it has been found that despite undoubted progress regarding the increase in share of RES in the energy balance, many problems remained unresolved. These include the sustainable use of biomass (especially wood resources) and insufficient use (despite the progress made in this area) of soft instruments.