Because Germany pushed the EU plan for gas
The European gas plan hides a real power struggle between the Brussels Commission, inspired by Germany, and the individual member states of the Union, very careful, on this occasion, to preserve their autonomy on the issue. Sergio Giraldo's article
Pyrrhic Victory of the European Commission in Brussels. During the week, the meeting of the European Council of energy ministers managed to find an agreement on the Commission's proposal (Save gas for a safe winter) which aimed to make the 15% cut in gas consumption mandatory.
Beyond the usual triumphalist tones of the Union, which in official statements and press releases is very keen to show itself "strong and united", the compromise was found on a text that was much weakened compared to the Commission's initial proposal.
In recent days a real power struggle has been staged between the Brussels Commission, inspired by Germany and increasingly driven by centralizing temptations, and the individual Member States of the Union, very careful, on this occasion, to preserve their own autonomy on the subject. A separate case is Hungary, which did not vote on the document and indeed in recent days has made it known that it wants to enter into negotiations with Russia for a gas supply contract. Yet another tear of the 26 with the government of Budapest, which is making France and Germany very nervous.
The compromise issued by the Energy Affairs Council requires member states to reduce gas demand by 15% compared to the average consumption of the last five years, between 1 August 2022 and 31 March 2023, with measures of their own initiative. The Commission can propose (on its own initiative or at the request of at least five states) to activate the highest alert level, which triggers the mandatory target, but member countries must confirm this with a vote at Council level.
Once the state of emergency at EU level has been approved, however, there are some exemptions and derogations, which apply to countries not connected with gas infrastructures and to those that have electricity grids that are not synchronized with the European electricity system and are heavily dependent on gas for electricity generation.
Member States can apply for a derogation if they have limited interconnections with other Member States and can demonstrate that their export capacity or national LNG infrastructure is used to better redirect gas to other Member States.
They can also apply for a waiver if they have exceeded their gas storage filling targets, are highly dependent on gas as a raw material for industries or if their gas consumption has increased by at least 8% in the last year compared to to the average of the last five years. As can be seen, the range of exemptions is quite large and sufficiently generic to allow a very high percentage of opt-outs.
German economy minister, Robert Habeck, the green minister, was satisfied and stressed that several states, including his own, will most likely have to reduce consumption by more than 15%. Therefore, the uncertainty about the volumes of gas really at stake continues, even if the Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson specified that in the event of an interruption of supplies from Russia, Europe would find itself in winter with a hole of 30 billion meters cubes of gas (45 billion if it were a very cold winter).
We remind you that this new measure is to be included in the European solidarity framework, so if Germany runs out of gas from Russia it could ask Italy to activate the solidarity agreement signed last March, which provides for an emergency supply on conditions. pre-established in the agreements themselves. Germany has also entered into similar agreements with Denmark and Austria.
The Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, present at the meeting, was also satisfied: "With the numbers and rules established" at EU level, "we should save about 7% compared to the annual average of the last five years", said the minister at the end of the meeting. “When we made the differentiation plan by moving the Russian 30 billion cubic meters to other suppliers, we have already foreseen a saving that is equal to or greater than this number. Our actions are already compatible with this plan, so we feel satisfied ”.
(Extract from an article published in the newspaper La Verità)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/commissione-europea-taglio-consumi-gas/ on Sat, 30 Jul 2022 05:36:38 +0000.