EU to propose to keep the compulsory gase fulfillment objectives despite the decline in countries – politico

The debate arrives at a critical moment. This week, the EU has unveiled its own industrial operation plan to save heavy industries in difficulty such as steel, cement and paper, with which energy prices are faced with persistent energy prices that hurt their ability to compete. Bloc companies are currently paying twice as much for energy as their American competitors.

According to Laura Page, analyst of the KPLER Commodities platform, the EU is released this winter with its more exhausted gas supplies than in 2022 and 2023, following a snap in cold and the loss of Russian gas from pipeline gas via Ukraine last month.

This “exerts more pressure on Europe to import a lot of (liquefied natural gas) this summer,” said page, which increases competition with Asia, “ultimately keeping high prices, which is difficult for industries”. EU gas storage is currently complete at 39.5%.

Meanwhile, the pressure to achieve storage objectives encourages countries to subsidize gas purchases. According to an initiate in the gas industry, anonymity has granted anonymity to speak frankly of sensitive financial information, 10 EU countries and the United Kingdom will pay a total of 30 billion euros to complete and store gas this year.

Who worries the EU capitals. During a meeting of the envoys member of the country in Brussels earlier this month, in Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Greece, in the Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands, all have raised concerns concerning the current rules, according to two EU diplomats, which, like the other officials cited in this history, were granted to the announcement. Countries have pushed to make the objectives more flexible before this winter or completely voluntary.

However, although the next week’s proposal from the Commission “will reflect flexibility” that EU countries have requested and give them more “respiratory space” to achieve provisional objectives, according to one of the commission officials, the provisional monthly objectives and the final objective of November will remain compulsory.

In its own industrial agreement last week, the EU executive also declared that it would consider the “more flexible rules” on storage, without providing additional details.

The new proposal on targets “will help reduce the stress of the system and avoid market distortions linked to gas storage, to support the filling of better purchase conditions and the security of supply,” he wrote in the text.