The European Commission is expected to present a communication on energy on 2 March, according to its provisional agenda.
When EUROPE asked her about the purpose of the communication, a spokesperson for the institution stressed that the European Commission “continues to follow very closely all developments relating to the energy market, energy prices, and resilience across all Member States.”
In this context, it “will take stock of the situation and assess if the Toolbox [presented by the European Commission on 13 October of last year (see EUROPE 12811/1)] can further be strengthened”.
During an exchange with members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on the rise in energy prices on Wednesday, 2 February, Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson had seemed to provide more information about this communication without actually making a direct reference to it.
She notably declared, “We are working on pricing instruments that could help de-risk the use of PPAs and help small and medium-sized companies to be able to conclude them”.
She then stressed the need to reduce the construction time for new renewable installations.
“My services and I [...] want to present some recommendations on how to speed up the roll-out of new renewable capacity soon”, she assured her listeners.
Faced with calls from certain MEPs for more short-term measures that aim to provide relief to citizens and businesses, the commissioner specified that the recommendations in question would be presented in the spring or early summer.
She added, “You can also expect [a] solar strategy [from us]”.
It should be noted that the European Commission’s provisional agenda moreover indicates that the institution intends to unveil its new strategy on international energy engagement on 3 May.
As for MEPs, some of them called for stronger measures.
Frenchman Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe) thus called for the link between electricity and gas prices to be broken and for there to be more discussion on joint fossil gas storage capacities.
Dan Nica (S&D, Romania) called for an EU directive obliging Member States to create gas reserves and ensure that they are 80% full by September each year to be presented.
The level of gas storage in the EU currently stands at around 40%, which is 10% lower than at the same time in previous years.
Nevertheless, Ms Simson wanted to appear reassuring with regard to the EU’s fossil gas supply amid tensions with Russia (the EU’s main gas supplier) due to fear of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
She thus stated, “we think that the available gas stocks in the EU and our good network of LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals will protect us against major security of supply problems”.
Nonetheless, she stressed the importance of monitoring the situation and being prepared for any scenario at the regional and national levels.
To access the provisional agenda: https://bit.ly/3uqfeUS (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)