European Finance Ministers will meet on Monday 20 January, on the eve of the Ecofin Council, for an informal dinner devoted to energy prices in Europe.
In a document from the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, obtained by Agence Europe, ministers are asked about the construction of the European energy market and how to tackle it in order to “reduce energy costs and improve the EU’s competitiveness”.
They will also be asked to adopt a position on “an effective common approach to the capacity market” that will help to ensure security of supply at affordable costs.
To inform their debate, ministers will attend the presentation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of its analytical report on energy market integration.
In this report, the IMF points out that the energy price gap between the EU and the US has widened significantly from 2022 onwards, but that there is also a growing divergence in energy prices between Member States and increased energy price volatility in Europe.
The reasons for the system’s inefficiency, according to the IMF, are “largely decentralised planning and investment, inefficient production and excessive national redundancies”.
It recognises the essential role of electrification and renewables, as well as nuclear power, in reducing energy costs and improving energy security.
Identifying the need to cooperate at regional level and to resolve the regulatory and technical problems that prevent the market from operating more efficiently, the IMF concludes that joint European action is needed to bring down energy prices for end-users in the medium and long term.
“A fully effective European energy market has yet to be created”, sums up the Polish Presidency its document for ministers. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys with Mathieu Bion)