A proposal for a temporary price ceiling is expected to be submitted by European Commission before the Council of Energy Ministers to be held in Brussels on 24 November.
As stated in a joint letter from the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, to the 27 member states, “the Commission will present a detailed description of the proposal for a corrective market mechanism (temporary price ceiling ) which will take into account the conditions and safeguards requested by member states in time for ministers to discuss at the energy ministers’ council on 24 November.’
The letter also notes that “next year markets are likely to remain tight. The Commission will be ready to present to the next European Council the assessment of a possible gap in supply natural gas. Therefore, our key challenge is to ensure that we have enough gas available before winter 2023/24 to fill storage. This requires us to access markets in a more coordinated way under our common energy platform for demand aggregation and joint procurement, while we continue our efforts to reduce demand and seek to stabilize markets and prices.”
A day earlier, the 15 member states signing the gas cap letter, including Greece, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, warned that they would block the solidarity regulation if the Commission did not present a proposal for the cap before the Council of Energy Ministers on November 24. However, the front of the group of 15 countries was torn apart at the meeting of permanent representatives on Friday morning, continuing to exert pressure towards the implementation of a price ceiling on natural gas. Finally, a second regulation is expected to be presented to the Council of Ministers of Energy so that licensing procedures for renewable energy imgs are faster.
Pressure from the “15”
According to the APE – MEB, great pressure is still exerted by the 15 member states (among them Greece, Poland, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy) who request the imposition of a cap on the price of natural gas, stressing that what they specifically want from the Commission is to table a legislative initiative and not some other form of proposal before the Council of Energy Ministers on November 24, otherwise they are sticking to blocking the solidarity regulation.
Until this time, information indicates that the 15 member states are proceeding in a coordinated manner.
Source: News Beast
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