Rather than going as far as joint purchasing and strategic gas stocks, as some member states have suggested, the EU could create a “European solidarity mechanism” to be better equipped to deal with future energy price crises, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) said in a briefing note published on 6 October.
Specifically, this would involve the harmonisation of gas storage requirements at EU level and the introduction of a minimum requirement of stockholding for situations of high global gas demand such as the current one.
While EU gas storage facilities are less full than usual (72% of their maximum capacity compared to an average of 85% over the last ten years), the EU could then set itself the obligation to fill them up to 85% or even 90% of their storage capacity, says CEPS.
According to this European think tank, such a mechanism would have the advantage of being able to be set up quickly and at relatively low cost.
See the note: https://bit.ly/3BkiVvX (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)