The Member States of the European Union will try to ‘close’ a political agreement today around an emergency intervention in the face of the rise in energy prices, and must approve a solidarity contribution on the exceptional profits of companies in the sector.
In an extraordinary Council of EU Energy Ministers, the 27 have on the table a proposal for a regulation presented this month by the European Commission, and negotiated over the last few weeks by the Member States, which foresee a taxation of 33% of the excessive profits of the fossil fuel companies, to be converted into a “solidarity contribution”, a ceiling on the profits of companies producing electricity with low (renewable) costs, and plans to reduce electricity consumption, voluntary (10% for general demand ), and mandatory (5% at ‘peak hours’).
According to the current Czech presidency of the EU Council, ministers will also carry out “an exchange of views on other policy options to mitigate high gas prices”, with a very large group of 15 member states, including which Portugal, who are demanding a ‘ceiling’ on the gas price, a measure that, however, is not supported by countries such as Germany and the Netherlands and is not fully shared by the European Commission, which prefers a limit only to Russian gas imports .
As there is already a consensus around the emergency intervention package focused on reducing electricity consumption and taxing the excessive revenues of companies in the energy sector and consequent redistribution to the most vulnerable – a measure that Portugal has already announced that it supports -, today’s discussion thus promises to be more lively around the price of gas.
This week, a group of 15 Member States, including Portugal, signed a joint letter addressed on Wednesday to the European Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, demanding a ceiling on the price of imported gas, a matter they want to see discussed. at today’s extraordinary Energy Council.
Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria ask the community executive to present proposals today to limit the price of natural gas, followed by “a proposal legislation as soon as possible”.
The governments of the 15 Member States say they “recognise the efforts made by the Commission and the measures it has presented to face the crisis”, but argue that it is necessary to face “the most serious problem of all”, imposing a maximum price on gas, all transactions, not just “import from specific jurisdictions”, thus ruling out the imposition of a price only for gas imported from Russia.
However, in statements made on Thursday, Commissioner Simson was “firmly” in favor of imposing a maximum price for all Russian gas imports, admitting with less enthusiasm a ceiling for gas in general in the formation of prices of the electricity.
At a meeting in which Portugal will be represented by the Minister for the Environment and Climate Transition, Duarte Cordeiro, Denmark, supported by Germany and Sweden, will inform the ministers about recent gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, in the Baltic Sea, near the island. Bornholm, Denmark, which the European Union suspects are the result of Russian sabotage.
The crisis in the energy sector began a year ago, in the autumn of 2021, but was exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a country on which many EU Member States were – and some still are – dependent for energy supply, at the global level. of fossil fuels.
