The joint paper, seen by EURACTIV, was presented on Tuesday (11 October) during an informal EU Energy Council in Prague where the bloc’s 27 energy ministers are meeting to discuss the EU’s response to rising gas and electricity prices.
It contains proposals ranging from strengthening joint gas purchases to deepening demand reduction measures and boosting the deployment of renewable energy capacity.
These measures should “calm down the markets,” Dutch energy minister Rob Jetten said ahead of the second day of the informal talks on Wednesday (12 October).
According to the joint paper, the EU needs a “coordinated effort” on an “action package of no-regret-measures” to deal with low gas supplies and uncoordinated purchases from EU countries, which have driven up energy prices.
As part of this joint approach, Berlin and The Hague call for combining the EU’s purchasing power to ensure countries are “no longer in a position that they have to accept any price”.
In particular, measures should be taken to avoid situations where EU countries compete against each other for scarce gas resources, which is driving prices further up.
“We need to act together as one building block,” the paper argues.
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(euractiv.gr, 12 October, 2022)