EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson announced on Wednesday 22 September the presentation of a “toolbox” in the coming weeks to help Member States put in place short-term measures to address the current surge in gas and electricity prices in Europe (see EUROPE 12795/13), following an informal meeting of Member States’ energy ministers.
“I proposed to the ministers today to draw up a more structured toolbox [to] guide those Member States who are willing to consider short term temporary measures to protect their vulnerable consumers”, Simson told a press conference.
She added: “Right now what Member States are asking for is a clear guidance on what kind of temporary measures are in accordance to EU regulation”.
When asked about the format of the toolbox, the Commissioner simply said that it would be a tool with “available measures that Member States can put in place in the very short term”.
The Commissioner also pointed out that the Commission has already made proposals which, in the long term, “will lessen our dependency on imports of fossil fuels and volatility of fossil fuels”.
Along with ministers such as Lithuanian Minister Dainius Kreivys and Irish Minister Eamon Ryan, the Commissioner mentioned the importance of developing renewable energy and improving energy efficiency, two topics that were on the agenda of the ministers' meeting.
Slovenian Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec, who chaired the meeting, said that while the ministers generally welcomed the proposals to revise the energy efficiency and renewable energy directives, “many Member States” were questioning whether we needed sub-targets by sector, as proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12762/8).
Spain puts pressure on
Particularly hard hit by rising energy prices because of its heavy dependence on gas, Spain is pressing for greater EU involvement in the issue.
In particular, the country wants a debate on possible changes to the EU’s energy market to be included on the agenda of the next European Council, which will take place on 21 and 22 October. This request was made by the Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Juan González-Barba, on Tuesday 21 September.
He also noted that the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, had already floated the idea last week at a meeting of Mediterranean leaders in Athens, and that he had received the support of Italy.
In addition, the Spanish Ministers of Economy and Energy, Nadia Calviño and Teresa Ribera, sent a letter and non-paper to the European Commission on 20 September asking it to develop “a flexible set of guidelines with which to provide different policy options for Member States to cushion the effect of sudden increases in energy prices”.
In particular, the Spanish document contains a series of proposals to “frame the necessary debate to be taken at European level”.
See the letter from the Spanish ministers: https://bit.ly/3CFumyF
See the non-paper: https://bit.ly/3EJIxUY (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)