The European Union emergency plan on gas was approved in the Energy Affairs Council this morning with the only opposition from Hungary. Diplomatic sources report this. A qualified majority was required for the approval of the package. The vote against Budapest was therefore irrelevant.
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyenenthusiastically welcomed the news, noting that it is “a decisive step in addressing the threat of a total outage of gas” and now “thanks to today’s decision, Europe is now ready to tackle its energy security, as a Union “.
The filling of Italy’s gas stocks “has exceeded 70%, we are going towards 71%, so I would say that we are fine”, said the Minister for Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, speaking on the Energy Affairs Council. “By the beginning of winter we will be almost independent of Russian supplies and by next year the situation will be quite safe, with no major dependencies on Russia. Indeed, without any dependence on Russia “, assured Cingolani.
With the numbers and rules established “at EU level,” we we should save about 7% compared to the average“weighted” annual over the last five years “, said Cingolani, commenting on the agreement reached between the European ministers.” When we made the gas differentiation plan by shifting the Russian 30 billion cubic meters to other suppliers, we have already foreseen savings which is equal to or greater than this number. Our actions are already compatible with this plan, so we feel satisfied “, he stressed.
Meanwhile the price of gas recorded a leap in Europe, with fears of a possible decision by Russia to keep flows to a minimum. In Amsterdam, the price jumped to € 200.40 per megawatt hour and then fell back to € 199, an increase of 12.6%, to levels at the beginning of last March.
THE EU PLAN
According to the text of the plan, by way of derogation, the cut in gas consumption can drop from -15% to -7%. The compulsory reduction of demand by 8 points is triggered “provided that the States demonstrate that their interconnection with other Member States in technical export capacity compared to their annual gas consumption in 2021 is less than 50% and that the capacity on the interconnectors to other Member States was actually used to transport gas at a level of at least 90% up until the month before, “the text reads.
Furthermore, in the approved text there is a reference to the price cap that was proposed by Italy. The reference is in the preamble, in the initial recitals. “Following the request of the European Council – it reads – the Commission is also exploring, together with our international partners, ways to curb the increase in energy prices, including the possibility of introducing temporary caps on import prices and to continue work on optimizing the functioning of the European electricity market “, reads the text, which thus meets the Italian demands.
EU Commission: ‘Commitment to urgently explore the price cap’. “The Commission is urgently considering the different possibilities of introducing gas price caps. To this end, the Commission will consult Member States (and international partners, if appropriate) and report back in the autumn with specific proposals if necessary.” This is what we read in a statement that, according to what is learned, the EU Commission drafted in support of the agreement on the plan for reducing gas demand. In the statement, the European executive declares that it “will continue the impact assessment process on how to resist future excessive price volatility”.
Before the start of the extraordinary Council, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, said she expected “a political agreement at the end of the day”, admitting that on the question “because the member states have different starting positions”. Simson also said that “we know there is no technical reason” to justify Gazprom’s decision to reduce gas flows through Nordstream1. “It is a politically motivated step and we must be ready”, and “for this reason the preventive reduction of the EU” gas demand is a wise strategy “, she explained.
According to Josef Sikela, Czech Minister of Energy – whose country is the current president of the EU Council – the new drastic cut announced by Gazprom is “further proof” that Europe must “reduce its dependence. from Russian supplies as soon as possible “.
Meanwhile, natural gas on the market in Amsterdam jumped to 186 euros per MWh, where futures contracts for the month of August gained 5.31%. Up by 10.3% le
quotations for methane in London, where 353.49 pennies are requested for each single thermal unit (Mbtu), exceeding the threshold of 3.5 pounds.
Source: Ansa
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