The energy ministers of the European Union will hold an extraordinary Council this Friday in Brussels to discuss possible emergency measures to be applied at the community level to alleviate the effects of the rise in prices in the energy sector.
This meeting, in which Portugal will be represented by the Minister for the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, is highly anticipated, even by the Portuguese Government, which assumed that it is awaiting the decisions that result from the debate on the 27th to define its support . for businesses, having already adopted, earlier this week, an emergency program to help families.
The current Czech presidency of the Council of the EU said that “ministers will be invited to identify preferred measures that could be implemented at EU level in a short period of time to ease the burden of high energy prices on citizens , public services, companies and industry”.
“The discussion will be based on a note from the presidency that lists different options for short-term actions that could bring relief to the energy situation. The outcome of the discussion will fuel the Commission’s reflection on the immediate emergency measures it intends to propose soon. and on further reforms of the long-term EU energy market design,” the Council said.
On Wednesday, the European Commission already put some ideas on the table, among them the imposition of a cap on the profits of low-cost electricity producing companies and a “solidarity contribution” from fossil fuel companies, as well as establishing a price cap for gas imports by pipeline from Russia to the European Union for the purchase of Russian gas.
The working document prepared by the community executive as a contribution to this Energy Council also includes two other proposals: a binding objective to reduce electricity consumption and the facilitation of liquidity support by the Member States to energy service companies that are facing problems due to this market volatility.
The Council has also prepared proposals for discussion, including temporary caps on the price of gas used for electricity production and on the price of gas imported from specific jurisdictions, as well as a temporary decoupling of gas and electricity market prices. . the image of the “Iberian mechanism” implemented by Portugal and Spain.
To increase liquidity in the market, the document of the Czech Presidency of the Council admits an “immediate credit line support for market participants experiencing very high additional coverage values, including the need for a specific solution at European level , for example through the ECB”.
It will be like this with many options on the table -and different sensitivities among the 27-, that the ministers responsible for Energy will begin the debate on Friday, and it is expected that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will present specific proposals on the occasion of his annual State of the Union address, which he will deliver next week in Strasbourg.
The Finance Minister admitted on Thursday that the Government is waiting for “important” decisions to be taken at the EU level to deal with high energy prices in order to define the support plan for companies.
Fernando Medina, who participated in a debate in the European Parliament during which he presented the emergency support program for families to mitigate the effects of high inflation, confirmed that the support program for companies will only be defined after the discussions ongoing in the European Union, pointing in particular to today’s extraordinary Council of Energy Ministers.
Recalling that the President of the Government, António Costa, has already announced that the Government “will wait for the debate in the Energy Council” and the subsequent formal proposals from the European Commission to “better define” the business plan, Fernando Medina has indicated that “There have been discussions” and, at today’s meeting, “there will be a very broad and very deep audience of the Member States and only then will the Commission present its proposals”.
On Monday night, when he presented a set of measures aimed at alleviating the effects of inflation, with a focus on families, amounting to 2,400 million euros, Costa said that the Energy Council will help the Government to understand what is the panorama. that it will go ahead and, consequently, adjust the measures to what the real needs of the companies are.
“We will look at businesses properly, at the right time, because what is impacting businesses the most has been rising energy costs. We have a set of measures that are underway. Even today we had negotiations with the European Commission to have a better adaptation. of the measures already authorized by the European Commission to the reality of the Portuguese economy”, the Prime Minister then added.
Today’s meeting starts at 10:00 local time, 9:00 Lisbon time.
Source: TSF
