The European Commission will present a new package of measures on Tuesday, which guarantees that it will not be the last, to deal with high energy prices and possible interruptions in the supply of gas to the European Union (EU) this winter.
Last week, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, announced that “the Commission was working to present a new package of proposals” precisely to tackle high energy prices and guarantee security of supply, at a time when that light and gas register values above the average. and in which there are fears of interruptions in supply to the EU from Russia, particularly in this cold season.
Kadri Simson revealed that this “will not be the last package of its kind, as instruments will need to be further developed and the approach adjusted as the situation evolves” with respect to the energy crisis and Russian supply disruptions, given the war. from Ukraine.
According to the draft proposals to which the Lusa agency had access, the European Commission will propose the creation of legal instruments for joint gas purchases by the EU, similar to that carried out for anti-Covid-19 vaccines, but which will only should move forward in the spring of 2023.
The community executive will also suggest a temporary mechanism to cap prices on Europe’s main natural gas exchange, the TTF, while it works on a new complementary benchmark index to include “real market conditions” in 2023.
For the immediate future, the institution will demand solidarity rules in the EU to make gas available to all member states in an emergency, such as in the event of a break in Russian supply, ensuring that countries access the reserves of others.
In the communication to which Lusa had access, Brussels also defends that the extension to the entire EU of the existing temporary mechanism in the Iberian Peninsula to limit the price of gas in the production of electricity “involves some risks”, preferring another “solution to all”, which goes through the reform of the electricity market.
The measures will be presented this afternoon at a press conference by the European Commissioners for Energy, Kadri Simson, and for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, which will take place at the end of a meeting of the College of Commissioners, in the French city of Strasbourg, on the sidelines of the plenary session of the European Parliament.
Geopolitical tensions over the war in Ukraine have hit the European energy market as the EU relies on Russian fossil fuels like gas and fears supply cuts this fall and winter.
Source: TSF
