Five EU actions announced against high energy prices
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced today several measures to be taken as soon as possible to lower increasing energy prices.
The first thing to do is smart savings of electricity. The Commission will propose a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours. And the EU will work very closely with the Member States to achieve this.
The second measure is the proposal of a cap on the revenues of companies that are producing electricity with low costs. The Commission will propose to re-channel unexpected profits to the Member States so that the Member States can support the vulnerable households and vulnerable companies.
The third measure is for the unexpected profits of fossil fuel companies. Von der Leyen stated that oil and gas companies have made massive profits and therefore, they will propose that there is a solidarity contribution for fossil fuel companies.
The fourth point is addressing the energy utility companies that must be supported to be able to cope with the volatility of the markets. Here, it is a problem of securing futures markets. And for that, liquidity is needed. Therefore, the Commission will help to facilitate the liquidity support by Member States for energy companies. They will update their temporary framework and enable thus state guarantees to be delivered rapidly.
The fifth and the last point is aimed at lowering the costs of gas. Therefore, they will propose a price cap on Russian gas.
"We all know that our sanctions are deeply grinding into the Russian economy, with a heavy negative impact. But Putin is partially buffering through fossil fuel revenues. So here, the objective is: We must cut Russia's revenues, which Putin uses to finance his atrocious war in Ukraine. And now our work of the last months really pays off. Because, at the beginning of the war, if you looked at the imported gas, 40% of it was Russian gas, since a long time. Today, we are down to 9% only", von der Leyen said in today's statement.
Source: European Commission
