The European Commission will present this Tuesday to the energy ministers of the European Union (EU) an analysis of a possible extension of the Iberian mechanism to the community bloc, arguing that there is no more gas consumption and questioning the costs.
The information has been provided by the European Commissioner for Protection, Kadri Simson, who, upon her arrival at the meeting of responsible ministers in Luxembourg, has indicated that the community executive has been asked for “an analysis of what would be a possible extension of the Iberian exemption”. for the rest of Europe it will mean”. “.
“As you know, the Iberian Peninsula is not sufficiently interconnected with the rest of Europe, so this option could be tested there and […] to analyze how we can extend it so as not to trigger gas consumption,” the official added.
Kadri Simson pointed out that it is also necessary to understand “what it really means on the spending side, because different Member States have different energy mixes and the gas subsidy costs will be spread”.
EU energy ministers will debate this Tuesday in Luxembourg the proposals presented a week ago by the European Commission to deal with high energy prices and possible interruptions in gas supply this winter.
A measure on the table – for which there has not yet been a proposal from the European Commission, but which already deserves the opposition of some Member States due to the configuration of their energy mix – is, therefore, the application in the EU of a similar to the Iberian mechanism in force since last June, which limits the price of gas in electricity production.
Brussels, therefore, will present today an analysis of a possible extension of this Iberian mechanism, which would still have to work in another way because not all Member States have such a weight of renewables in their energy mix.
At the entrance to the meeting, the Vice President of the Spanish Government, Teresa Ribera, said that Spain will support the EU countries in the production of electricity that are “unprotected” with coal and gas, because they still do not have a system like the Iberian mechanism that reduces the electricity bill.
Since mid-June, a temporary Iberian mechanism has been in force to set limits on the average price of gas in electricity production, around 50 euros per megawatt-hour, which was requested by Portugal and Spain last March by the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, which put even more pressure on the energy market.
At this Tuesday’s meeting, the community executive will present a working document on a possible permanent solution to decouple gas prices from electricity, reformulating the electricity market in the EU.
A week ago, the European Commission presented new measures to deal with the energy crisis, guaranteeing to carry out a structural reform of the electricity market at the beginning of next year to, among other things, decouple the price of electricity from gas.
Today, it is up to European energy officials to debate proposals for regulations to strengthen solidarity through better coordination of gas purchases, cross-border exchanges and reliable reference prices and to prepare the EU for a possible energy emergency.
The debate comes after EU heads of state and government late last week agreed to work on measures to contain high energy prices, exacerbated by the Ukraine war.
The announcement of this future work was made after several hours of debates between the leaders of the 27, marked by divergent positions on issues such as temporary limits on gas reference prices and solidarity rules in the community bloc for the availability of gas at all the states. – members in case of emergency.
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 winter.
Source: TSF
