Ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia and the Netherlands reiterated their opposition to reforming the EU energy market to tackle soaring prices in a joint statement on Wednesday 1 December.
“We cannot support any measure that would represent a departure from the competitive principles of our electricity and gas market design”, they warn.
Based on a preliminary analysis by the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) (see EUROPE 12833/7) carried out at the request of the European Commission, the nine signatory countries point out that the introduction of price caps or technology-dependent average prices based on the national energy mix could jeopardise security of supply, increase the costs of integrating variable renewable energy generation in the long term and undermine the integration of the European electricity market.
However, they are willing to consider other options, provided that they are “within the existing market framework”. These options should aim to reduce the revenue risk for renewable electricity generation and improve hedging opportunities and market transparency.
Finally, the signatory Member States reaffirm their support for the Commission’s position that “a well-managed energy transition is not the cause, but part of the solution to keep prices affordable and predictable”.
It should be noted that these countries had already issued a similar statement at the end of October, one day before a previous emergency ministerial meeting (see EUROPE 12819/2), in response to calls from some Member States, in particular France, to reform the energy market.
In addition to rising energy prices, the ministers’ meeting on Thursday will also discuss the Commission’s proposed climate legislation package (‘Fit for 55 package’ - see EUROPE 12843/12).
See the statement: https://bit.ly/3d60q3S (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)