Mounting energy costs are placing force on all European governments. Numerous governments, such as ours, in recent days have appeared with hope to the European Union to intervene. Here is in which the information would seem to have gotten. On Monday afternoon, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen introduced that she is doing the job on “an unexpected emergency intervention and structural reform of the electricity industry”.
There are some slopes on the desk. First, the Fee would like to see if it can restrict gas price ranges, for illustration by coming into into extended-expression contracts with substantial suppliers this sort of as Norway or Algeria. This is also doable by restricting the cost of fuel as an EU on the wholesale current market. This is what Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen) promises. “In this way, Europe would harness the electricity of its massive vitality market place to get a reduce selling price,” states electricity pro Joannes Laveyne (UGent). “We would consequently like to say to the sellers: ‘We purchase up to that cost and not increased.’ This is a product that a lot of gurus have supported for some time. Nonetheless, the problem is that all international locations collaborate “.
Introducing an extra income tax is a 2nd option on the desk. “We are now imagining louder and louder about introducing some form of tax on the extra gains that companies make and working with it to support users,” claims Bram Claeys, an power skilled at the intercontinental consider tank RAP. “It is comprehensible, but the problem is: which firms will this tax use to?”
Reform
Even if the European Fee does not want to halt there. Far more and extra folks are also asking for a elementary reform of the electric power current market. And most importantly, these proposals go beyond the Commission’s very first proposals for these a reform in May well. “There were no basic interventions on the table at the time, this kind of as decoupling gas and electricity charges,” suggests Claeys. “This is getting recommended these days, for case in point by our govt. In the meantime, the strain has amplified and the Commission may well have to include things like proposals for such a fundamental reform ”.
It is real that the selling price of electricity is even now established by the final source of power desired to meet the demand. Initial, the market place appeals to the most affordable producers: consider about renewable electrical power. But if that isn’t going to cover the demand, a lot more highly-priced productions also arrive into check out. These are the types centered on all-natural gas. And it is exactly these charges that are now skyrocketing thanks to the war in Ukraine.
The Commission is now considering the chance of decoupling the two. “Many industry experts are not in favor,” Laveyne claims. “In reality, that program has worked well for ten years and has completed what it was supposed for. Higher than all, it displays that our method simply cannot withstand a major shock, such as a war. The reality that the Fee is now presenting this proposal shows, in my belief, earlier mentioned all the lack of ability to act in opposition to high gasoline costs “.
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