Several EU countries, including France and Spain, have stepped up calls for reform of the bloc’s energy market laws to tackle high prices, a position challenged by a rival group of countries including Germany, when EU energy ministers met on Thursday.
European energy prices soared to peaks in the fall, when a narrow gas supply collided with high demand in economies recovering from the COVID-19 epidemic. Although gas prices receded from a record high in October, they remained relatively high.
EU member states have struggled to find a common response to high prices, although leaders and ministers have held multiple emergency meetings in recent months to discuss the issue.
Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and six other countries on Wednesday issued a joint statement opposing EU energy market reforms.
Price caps or moving to another system of setting national electricity prices could deter cross-border electricity trade and undermine incentives to add low-cost renewable energy to the system, the states said.
A second club of countries – Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Romania – have fired a joint statement calling for EU law to protect consumers from fluctuations in energy prices, for example by requiring electricity suppliers to offer at least one electricity-based contract purchased a year or more in advance .
They also called for a joint purchase of gas between EU countries to create strategic reserves, and for an investigation to find reforms in the bloc’s electricity market.
“We think it requires an in-depth reflection,” said Spain’s energy and environment minister Theresa Rivera as energy ministers met to discuss their response to high gas and electricity prices.
“Energy prices are a cause for concern in all member states, no less for players in their economies and not for their governments.”
An initial report by EU energy regulators, released last month, did not identify major problems in planning the current electricity market. The market.
Many EU countries have already used temporary national measures to protect consumers from higher bills, including energy tax cuts and household subsidies. The commission said it would investigate the benefits of long-term options like a joint gas purchase.
Ministers will also on Thursday assess progress in negotiations to set tougher EU targets for improving energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy in this decade.
(Report by Kate Avnet, Additional Report by Isla Bini; Edited by David Evans and Emilia Sithol-Materis)