The European Commission did not put on the table new proposals during the European Council of this Tuesday, in Luxembourg.
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Since the beginning of September, meetings between European energy ministers follow one another without really being impressed on the subject, however flammable, of gas and electricity prices. The one held again, Tuesday, October 25, in Luxembourg, did not derogate from the rule.
However, Thursday, October 20, the heads of European state and government, gathered in Brussels, had clearly asked the commission to make more precise proposals, while the twenty-seven fear that the flambé of hydrocarbons plunge the Old continent in the recession and dangerously feeds social discontent.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, on February 24, Europeans have multiplied initiatives to learn to live without Russian gas. They now want to tackle a second front, that of prices. And even if, in recent days, these have come down, after reaching peaks this summer, the twenty-seven does not imagine that this lull is lasting. What is more, noted Josef Sikela, the Minister of Czech industry, whose country occupies the rotating presidency of the European Union Council, this withdrawal “is not reflected in the tariffs for consumers”. >
“This is not a proposal”
On October 18, the Community Executive had already presented several lines of work – common gas purchases, implementation of a market correction mechanism in order to reduce volatility, creation of a new reference index Gas price more representative of the situation – which had the main objective of allowing Europeans to fill their reservations in the best possible conditions, with a view to winter 2023-2024. On the other hand, he had remained silent on the way in which they could act to lower, immediately, the energy bills of households and businesses.
Tuesday, the Commission did not deem it useful either to specify the proposals it had mentioned a week ago, and which make relatively consensus, nor to put news on the table. A few hours before the Council of Ministers, she was content to transmit to the capitals a note which notably evokes a new work track – this time, a “targeted modification” of the electricity market, which would reduce the link between electricity and gas prices. Furthermore, the commission’s “paper” endeavors to methodically list the pitfalls of the so -called “Iberian” mechanism because it is currently in force in Spain and Portugal – the cap of the price of gas which is used to produce electricity -, defended by France and little to the taste of Germany.
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