On the proposal made by the European Commission to reduce gas consumption in the 27 EU countries, a strategy that would develop following the war in Ukraine and in the context of a further reduction in supplies from Russia, some European governments are holding back. And Italy is among them. At this point, the goal is to reach an agreement on the energy package by Tuesday 26 July, when the energy ministers arrive in Brussels. Time is running out.
The negotiation continues
Coreper will meet again on Monday 25, the body made up of the “permanent representatives” of each member state, ie the ambassadors to the EU of the respective countries, who express the position of their governments. Under the Czech presidency, it will be a new time of negotiation, which will likely lead to a change in the text.
The opposition of the countries of the South (and of Italy)
The Commission proposal does not particularly like the countries of the South (from Spain to Portugal to Greece; Poland is also against it) and Italy, in a letter signed by the owner of the Mite, Roberto Cingolani, has put pen to paper his opposition : in the viewfinder there is a 15% cut in gas consumption and, above all, the fact that it is the same for everyone. In the first case, for Italy the cut indicated by Brussels would weigh, and not a little: minus 8.3 billion cubic meters of gas. In the second, the observation that is made is that a linear cut would not take into consideration the energy mix that characterizes the different countries. The dependence on Russia, the filling of stocks, the work done on reducing consumption in recent years are not the same for all member countries and therefore the share of the cut cannot be.
The risk of a binding reduction in consumption
A third point of the draft regulation proposed by the European Commission that is criticized is that which provides for the power of the Commission to declare a state of alert. The Council would like to have it for itself. On the part of the States, on the other hand, it is feared that, once a state of alert is declared, the reduction of gas consumption in the European Union will become mandatory, and no longer voluntary.
In the viewfinder the mandatory percentage equal for all
For Italy, the same rule cannot be applied to everyone. “It being understood that solidarity must remain the heart of European action – underlined the minister in the letter – we need a coordinated response based on the principles of unity, solidarity and efficiency, proportionality and flexibility”.