An extraordinary European council on energy, however, set only at the end of the month. The call set for 30 September of an extraordinary meeting of the EU Energy Council by the Czech presidency of the Union is somewhat of a postponement to the extra time of the expected EU electricity and gas package.
The indiscretion from European sources was then confirmed in the facts by a tweet from the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, Jozef Síkela: “On September 30th we will finish what we started last week. I have just convened another extraordinary Energy Council for discuss the Commission’s proposals to tackle high energy prices. The Czech Presidency, the Member States and the Commission are ready to work together “. The ball is therefore destined to return to the field of governments, called to discuss what the Commission is working out in these days: the wait is all about the speech that the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenwill hold tomorrow (Wednesday) on the state of the Union and which will contain indications on how to cut electricity consumption and limit the bill for businesses and households.
The Commission’s measures: cap on revenues from sources other than gas
According to the draft circulated in the last few hours, the Commission is about to propose a ceiling of 180 euros per mwh on the revenues that energy sellers receive for that generated from sources other than gas, and would also provide for a redistribution of revenues in order to alleviate the consumer account. The document also provides for a “windfall tax”, a tax on the extraordinary profits generated by the companies active in the raw materials sector which have benefited from extraordinary results thanks to the trend in commodity prices. It should be a 33% tax rate on surplus profits over 20% of the average profits recorded in the last three fiscal years. These proceeds should go into measures aimed at helping consumers and businesses.
As far as electricity consumption is concerned, on the other hand, there is talk of compulsory cuts in the order of 5% during peak hours, for a 10% cut in monthly electricity demand of 10%. In fact, we are moving towards “a mandatory target of reducing electricity consumption during peak hours” to alleviate the increase in gas and electricity prices, but “we will give Member States the flexibility to decide on measures”, specified the European Commissioner. for Energy, Kadri Simson, in a plenary debate of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the increase in energy prices.
The Commission’s proposal, writes the Reuters, will kick off two weeks of intense negotiations, during which the Twenty-seven will try to reshape the interventions so that they are good for everyone. The great absent from the drafts, on which there is in fact no agreement, is the ceiling on the price of gas.
A piece that remains fundamental for the Italian Minister of Energy Transition, Roberto Cingolani, according to whom the package filtered by the European Commission is a “very important package of measures”. “The idea of a price cap is beginning to emerge – he then added speaking live on Tg1 – at the beginning there was resistance due to different prices, different energy mixes, but it is clear that the maneuvers must be European. L ‘Europe is now on its way towards a series of measures and towards a price cap. We hope that the expected results can arrive in the next two or three weeks “.
As for the domestic side, he once again insisted on national gas production: “We must resume it above all in the sites that do not have a strong impact from the point of view of the new work that needs to be done, that is to say already existing sites; we can to produce 5-6 billion cubic meters more in the next few years every year, with zero environmental impact in the sense that what we produce more we reduce it from imports “.