The EU27 energy ministers will meet in Brussels to discuss the European Commission’s plan to reduce gas consumption to prepare the EU for a total cut-off of Russian gas supplies, on Tuesday 26 July, in an extraordinary meeting which will also be attended by the Commission’s Executive Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, and the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson.
Entitled ‘Save Gas for a Safe Winter’, the Commission’s plan includes a series of recommendations to Member States, but also a proposal for an EU Council regulation.
This text provides for the setting of a target for Member States to reduce their gas demand by 15% between 1 August 2022 and 31 March 2023 compared to their average consumption in the same period over the previous 5 years (see EUROPE 12997/2).
While this target would be voluntary in principle, it could become binding depending on the evolution of the EU’s energy situation, through the triggering of an alert at EU level.
This is not a possibility that the Member States are keen on.
They have had several exchanges over the last few days at working group and ambassador (Coreper) level to make changes to the text.
The latest proposal for revision of the text submitted by the Czech Presidency of the EU Council (the third version) includes removing the possibility for the Commission to trigger the process on its own initiative, a senior EU diplomat said on Monday 25 July.
This power would only accrue to Member States in two different ways: - by adopting a Commission proposal along these lines by qualified majority; - at the request of at least five Member States that have declared national alerts (compared to three Member States in the Commission’s original proposal).
Derogations for some Member States?
Several EU countries have also expressed reservations about the Commission’s approach of setting the same target for each Member State.
“Unlike other countries, we Spaniards have not lived beyond our means when it comes to energy”, said the Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, on 20 July, prior to the presentation of the plan.
Deploring a lack of consultation among Member States, she added: “We defend European values, but we cannot be asked to make a sacrifice on which we have not even been asked our opinion”.
“We do not want to introduce uniform objectives that would not be adapted to the reality of each country and that would not affect our ability to export gas to our neighbours”, said a member of the cabinet of the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
For this member, the EU Council must reach an agreement that takes into account the “principle of solidarity”, but also “the specific situations of each Member State and our gas export capacities”.
Given the limited physical capacity to transfer gas from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, in particular the interconnections between France and Germany, there would be no point in making efforts to reduce gas demand beyond the gas export capacity, the minister’s cabinet said.
According to a senior EU diplomat, Member States have already agreed to introduce derogations for island states (Cyprus and Malta), due to their lack of interconnection with the rest of the EU energy network, and for the Baltic States, as they are connected to the Russian energy network.
This diplomat also assured that the gas demand reduction target would remain very close to 15% even with the derogations.
For its part, the Commission justified its decision to propose a uniform 15% target by the need to make “a joint effort”.
While the Czech Presidency was optimistic that an agreement will be reached after the ministers’ meeting, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU were still discussing the Czech proposal early on Monday 25 July.
It should be noted that the discussion between the ministers on the proposed Council regulation will be held in camera. The next one, on the other proposals in the ‘Saving Gas for a Safe Winter’ package, will be public.
Further reduction in Russian deliveries
In parallel to the ambassadors’ meeting, the Russian gas giant Gazprom announced that it will reduce its daily gas deliveries to the EU via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 33 million cubic metres, or about 20% of the pipeline’s capacity, down from the current 40%.
This reduction will take place as of Wednesday and is explained by the need for maintenance on a turbine, the company said.
Other items
In addition to the ‘Save Gas for a Safe Winter’ package, the issue of the design of the electricity market and the possible decoupling of gas prices from electricity prices will be discussed again (publicly) by the ministers on the basis of a note submitted by Greece.
Over lunch, the ministers will have an exchange of views with the Ukrainian Minister for Energy, German Galushchenko, to discuss EU energy cooperation with Ukraine.
See the proposal for a Council Regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/2qf
See the Greek note: https://aeur.eu/f/2qe (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)