Filipović: The EC's proposal to limit gas prices requires improvements

“The proposals for a regulation to establish a gas market correction mechanism and a regulation on strengthening solidarity require certain improvements,” said Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Davor Filipović on Thursday in Brussels.

“I think certain improvements are needed in both proposals,” said Davor Filipović before the start of the extraordinary meeting of the European Union's energy ministers.

Ministers will try to reach an agreement on a regulation on strengthening solidarity based on better coordination of gas purchases, cross-border gas exchanges and reliable price reference values, and on the establishment of a corrective market mechanism that would be activated when the price of natural gas on the Dutch Stock Exchange (TTF) is above 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks and 58 euros higher than the reference gas price for 10 consecutive days during two weeks.

Many member countries, especially those that requested the introduction of a gas price ceiling, including Croatia, expressed dissatisfaction with the Commission's proposal.

Everyone points out that the proposed ceiling is too high and that the corrective mechanism would not have been activated even in August of this year, when for several days the prices were over 340 euros per megawatt hour, because the condition that such high prices would be for at least two weeks would not have been met. Currently, the contract price on the TTF is around 120 euros per megawatt hour.

At the end of September, a group of 16 member states, which have a qualified majority in the EU Council, requested that wholesale gas prices be limited.

The Commission's proposal, which was opposed to such intervention on the gas market from the beginning, is practically unusable because it is clearly not intended to ever be activated, but rather to serve as a deterrent for excessive price increases.

The ministers of Belgium and Poland called the Commission's proposal with a ceiling of 275 euros a joke.

Ministers will also seek to reach a political agreement on a Council regulation establishing a temporary framework for accelerating the use of energy from renewable sources.

Minister Filipović said that he supports accelerating the issuance of permits because Croatia plans to have more than 2,500 megawatts from renewable sources by 2030.

“We have 3 important topics: first, we will discuss the Regulation on strengthening solidarity and the mechanism for correcting the wholesale price of gas. When we talk about that mechanism, as well as about the regulation on solidarity, we think that it is necessary to further improve these proposals,” said Minister Filipović.

Source: HRT