“By the end of the month, I think all of this should go into effect.” Ce vendredi sur France 2, Thierry Breton s’est montré optimiste sur la mise en place du dispositif d’achat commun de gaz au niveau européen, donnant en ligne de mire la reunion des ministres de l’Energie des 27 Etats-membres le 24 november.
“Facing Winter”
Thierry Breton also welcomed these future “voluntary group purchases”, approved by the European Council on October 20 and 21, which will allow “facing winter” by giving “greater negotiating capacity with suppliers”.
However, he was reassuring about gasoline prices, which are now “reasonable.” The European gas price peaked above €320 per megawatt hour in August before falling back to around €100 per MWh.
In October, the EU Heads of State and Government agreed to promote joint gas purchases at EU level. This would remain “voluntary” except to cover 15% of the mandatory minimum stock-fill volume for winter 2023.
Diversify supplies
In addition to a measure to control the wholesale price in natural gas transactions, the leaders called for a specific plan for a “temporary” mechanism to limit the price of gas used to produce electricity, a device already implemented in Spain and Portugal. and that France demanded that it be extended to the whole of the EU.
They had also called for speeding up EU negotiations with “reliable” producing countries such as Norway and the US, to “take advantage of the EU’s added economic weight” rather than compete on the world market with the risk of fueling the fever of prices.
Regarding the high prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) sold by the United States, the European commissioner points out that “it is not normal to pay four times more in Europe for what is produced in the United States” and assures that a meeting should be held soon issue in Washington.
Source: BFM TV
