Ribera urges EU to take ‘extraordinary’ measures to lower energy prices

extraordinary meeting Council of Energy Ministers This Friday kicked off in the midst of a split among the 27 on the European Commission’s proposals for some of its proposals to soon deal with the energy crisis that the European Union has fallen into as a result of shutting down the Russian gas tap. war in Ukraine. In particular, the proposal to impose an upper limit on Russian gas or natural gas imported from other countries is one of the issues that most clearly divides the partners. This split predicts that this Friday’s meeting will end without a closed consensus among member states. It will then be up to the European Commission to finalize a new proposal to deal with a greater consensus energy emergency.

Teresa Ribera, Vice President and Chair of the Ecological Transition, acknowledged that the European Union was late to a debate that she herself brought up a year ago, when prices began to skyrocket. “It was a discussion we probably should have had a year ago in order to arrive in Europe on time and avoid spectacular energy costs in these months when we saw regulatory tools and raw materials being used. An instrument of war and destabilization in Europe”. And warned that european regulation It is not “prepared for stressful situations” and needs “improvement to withstand future developments” with “urgent, exceptional measures to lower the prices we see” and “a reflection on how the wholesale market will function at European level”. ”.

Two controversies facing Spain “constructive will” and the European Commission’s willingness to “share experience” on the implementation of many of the measures and recommendations that appear in its reflections. According to Ribera, the solution that must emerge from this exercise to be “effective in reducing electricity prices” is a set of measures. “To be sure a fair contribution from all operators It is not possible to make this reduction in the electricity price only on the basis of the contributions to be made from the public budgets of the states. It is important to work with rates, taxes, contributions systems “It’s one of the major energy operators that has seen its revenues grow very significantly,” he argued.

Spain is not closing the discussion on the price of gas from the top. He thinks it is important to address the debate about how prices are structured and what the role of the agents who exchange this raw material is, at what price they buy and sell, as little is known. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that it’s a very opaque market, and the customs entry price is probably well below the reflected selling price. in wholesale markets, TTFHe admitted that it is necessary to clarify whether we are in a position to give signals about what price we want to buy gas coming from Russia via pipeline or from Russia, and under what conditions we can give signals. “What is the price of natural gas that we will eventually want to buy from other sources?” he said. This latest discussion is considered not “very urgent” but “clearly needs transparency”. As for the upper limit of Russian gas, it considers it necessary to “send a signal to the gas exported from Russia”.

Ribera also thinks it’s important to “bid at full speed” right now. liquidity demandswhich allows energy operators in Europe to “continue buying with corresponding financial guarantees but without being overwhelmed by the complexity resulting from this significant rise in prices they have to pay”. The Vice-President emphasized that Brussels’ idea of ​​reducing consumption – by 5%, by necessity – during rush hour was good, but the result would be in practice, as was the case with natural gas last July. “You have to see how the structure of demand is in each Member State. There are Member States that perhaps have little history in reducing these peak hours, and there are Member States where a lot of progress has been made in this direction. that margin is important,” he argued.