The energy ministers of the European Union will hold an extraordinary Council this Friday in Brussels to discuss possible emergency measures to be applied at the community level to alleviate the effects of the rise in prices in the energy sector.
This meeting, in which Portugal will be represented by the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeirois highly anticipated, even by the Portuguese Government, which assumed that it was awaiting the decisions arising from the debate on the 27th to define its support plan for companies, after having already adopted, earlier this week, a program emergency aid to families
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The current Czech presidency of the Council of the EU said that “ministers will be invited to identify preferred measures that could be implemented at EU level in a short period of time to ease the burden of high energy prices on citizens, public services, companies and industry”.
The discussion will be based on a note from the presidency that lists different options for short-term actions that could bring relief to the energy situation. The outcome of the discussion will feed into the Commission’s reflection on the immediate emergency measures it intends to propose soon and on further reforms of the EU’s energy market design in the longer term,” the Council said.
On Wednesday, the European Commission already put some ideas on the table, including the put a ceiling on the profits of low-cost electricity companies is a “solidarity contribution” from fossil fuel companiesas well as establish a price cap for imports of gas by pipeline from Russia to the European Union for the purchase of Russian gas.
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The working document prepared by the community executive as a contribution to this Energy Council also includes two other proposals: one binding target to reduce electricity consumption and the facilitation of liquidity support by Member States for energy service companies facing problems due to this market volatility.
The Council has also prepared proposals for discussion, including temporary limits on the price of gas used for electricity production and the price of gas imported from specific jurisdictionsas well as a temporary decoupling of gas and electricity market pricessomething similar to the “Iberian mechanism” implemented by Portugal and Spain.
To increase liquidity in the market, the document of the Czech Presidency of the Council admits an “immediate credit line support for market participants experiencing very high additional coverage values, including the need for a specific solution at European level , for example through the ECB”.
With many options on the table —and different sensitivities among the 27— it will be that the ministers responsible for Energy begin the debate on Friday, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to present specific proposals on the occasion of her annual State of the Union address, which he will deliver next week in Strasbourg.
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On Thursday, the The Finance Minister admitted that the Government is waiting for “important” decisions to be taken at the EU level face the high prices of energy to define the support plan for companies.
Fernando Medina, who participated in a debate in the European Parliament during which he presented the emergency support program for families to mitigate the effects of high inflation, confirmed that the The business support program will only be defined after ongoing discussions in the European Union.pointing in particular to the extraordinary Council of Ministers of Energy this Friday.
Recalling that the President of the Government, António Costa, has already announced that the Government “will wait for the debate in the Energy Council” and the subsequent formal proposals from the European Commission to “better define” the business plan, Fernando Medina has indicated that “there have been discussions” and, at this Friday’s meeting, “there will be a very broad and very deep audience of Member States and only then will the Commission present its proposals“.
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On Monday night, when he presented a set of measures aimed at mitigating the effects of inflation, with a focus on families, the value of 2.4 billion of euros, Costa said that the Energy Council will help the Government to understand what is the panorama that is coming and, consequently, adjust the measures to what are the real needs of the companies.
Companies, we will duly consider it, at the time, because what has most impacted companies has been the increase in energy costs. We have a set of measures that are in place. Even today we had negotiations with the European Commission to have a better adaptation of what are the measures already authorized by the European Commission to the reality of the Portuguese economy”, added the then Prime Minister.
This Friday’s meeting starts at 10:00 local time, 9:00 Lisbon time.
Source: Observadora
