Speaking to MEPs on behalf of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, acknowledged the continuing divisions between Member States over the possibility of capping energy prices to mitigate the impact of soaring prices on consumers and businesses, on Thursday 24 March, hours before the start of a European Council meeting to discuss the issue.
“Discussions between Member States are still sometimes complicated on such a subject”, he said in his opening address, while recommending that it should not be excluded.
He said that no energy option “should be taboo” in the exceptional circumstances of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to a potential price capping, he also mentioned: the use of joint gas purchases, common gas storage and a review of the functioning of the energy markets.
The question of common storage - a subject on which the European Commission has just presented a proposal for a regulation (see EUROPE 12917/7) - is, in his view, the “most consensual point today between the Member States”.
Calling the possibility of joint gas purchases “a good idea”, he said the issue “needs to be explored further”. Without prejudging the outcome of the European Council on Friday 25 March, it should be noted that this option appears in the latest draft of the summit conclusions.
The document, dated 23 March, states that in view of the coming winter, the Member States and the European Commission “will work urgently on the joint voluntary purchase of gas, LNG and hydrogen, making optimal use of the collective political and commercial weight of the European Union and its Member States to curb prices in the negotiations”.
The European Commission’s executive vice-president for the economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, was reassuring about the EU’s short-term energy security.
“We are emerging from winter into a relatively mild spring season, so any disruption would not cause any major issues, given the current levels of storage in Europe and of imports from alternative suppliers”, he said.
Stressing the need to prepare for the coming winter, he added: “What we can see clearly at this point is the need for a more coordinated European gas policy on buying, storing and responding to any supplier disruption”.
Reactions from MEPs
On behalf of the EPP group, Markus Pieper (Germany), called for decoupling the price of gas from that of electricity and reducing the EU’s dependence not only on gas but also on Russian oil and uranium. In his view, coal and nuclear power are needed to replace Russian gas and ensure the transition.
Welcoming the European Commission’s proposal on gas storage, Dan Nica (S&D, Romania) criticised the fact that a common gas purchasing mechanism is still not in place. He also insisted on the need to tax the “windfall income” of “speculators” in the energy market and to support households.
For the Renew Europe group, Morten Petersen (Denmark) called for “major campaigns to raise awareness of the benefits of energy saving” and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.
While he welcomed the European Commission’s proposal to ensure a minimum level of gas storage before the winter, Ville Niinistö (Greens/EFA, Finland) said this should not mean “investment in new fossil fuel infrastructure”. He supported the idea of joint purchasing, but criticised the option of a gas price capping, which “is a subsidy for fossil fuels”.
Paolo Borchia (ID, Italy), for his part, recommended further analysis of options, including joint gas purchases, before setting “unachievable” targets. He also criticised the proposal for compulsory stockpiling, arguing that this will further increase prices.
On behalf of the ECR group, Zdzisław Krasnodębski (Poland) lamented the contrast between rhetoric and a “desperate push for fossil fuels”, using the German economy minister’s recent visit to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as an example.
The co-chair of The Left group, Manon Aubry (France), called for the big oil and gas companies to be made to pay for their “record profits” and for “freezing the prices of petrol, gas, electricity, but also of all basic necessities”.
See the latest draft conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/x9 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)