Financial Associated Press, October 12 (Editor Zhou Ziyi) Wednesday (12), according to a document, Germany and the Netherlands will propose an energy plan to help reduce energy costs in the European Union.
EU energy ministers are scheduled to meet in Prague on Wednesday to discuss how to deal with current energy issues.
Germany and the Netherlands have drawn up a package that focuses on advising EU countries to jointly buy gas to stop individual countries from overbidding in the market.
Other measures in the document include raising and binding gas demand reduction targets, and developing an LNG benchmark to run alongside the European benchmark gas, the Dutch TTF.
lay the foundation
The EU executive body should carry out impact assessments of any measures to understand how they would affect gas demand, supply security and the energy transition, the document said.
The document will form the basis for Wednesday’s talks between the two energy ministers. Germany and the Netherlands argue that the measures should be implemented “immediately” and that member states should ensure that their storage capacity is coordinated next year to prevent price spikes.
Germany and the Netherlands argued that any measures should be “considered very carefully and should also include shared responsibility”.
The document will lay the groundwork for a meeting of European energy ministers who will seek a common proposal in a tense day so that the European Commission can present a new set of measures at a summit in Brussels on 20-21 this month.
Divergence over natural gas price cap
At an informal EU summit last week, there was “serious disagreement” over a cap on natural gas prices, and a day of discussions failed to make substantial progress.
Fifteen EU countries said last week that a cap on gas prices should be the next step, with countries backing the proposal including France, Italy and Poland. However, countries including Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands hold objections.
Germany, Europe’s largest gas market, has been skeptical of the price-cap plan, saying it would be uncompetitively price-competitive and would make it difficult for the EU to buy gas and could disrupt supplies. Germany believes that the main objective of the energy programme should be to reduce costs.
The German and Dutch documents pointed out that “any measures that only target the appearance of high prices are not enough to effectively solve the root of the problem.”