The joint European gas purchases, aimed at containing prices this winter, will be in place “by the end of the month,” said Friday the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
“By the end of the month, I think all this should come into force,” he explained on France 2, pointing to the meeting of the 27 energy ministers on November 24.
Mr. Breton welcomed these future “voluntary group purchases”, approved by the European Council of October 20 and 21, which will allow “to face the winter” by giving a “greater capacity to negotiate with suppliers”.
However, he was reassuring about gas prices, which are now “reasonable”. European gas prices peaked at over 320 euros per megawatt hour in August before falling back to around 100 euros per MWh.
“We are at 95% of filling our strategic tanks, well above the threshold we set for ourselves,” added the commissioner.
In October, the EU heads of state and government agreed to promote EU-wide joint gas purchases.
This would remain “voluntary”, except to cover 15% of the mandatory minimum stocking volume for winter 2023.
In addition to a measure to regulate the wholesale price of natural gas transactions, the leaders asked for a specific project for a “temporary” mechanism to cap the price of gas used to produce electricity – a mechanism already in place in Spain and Portugal, and which France called for to be extended to the entire EU.
They had also called for accelerating the EU’s negotiations with “reliable” producer countries such as Norway and the United States, to “take advantage of the economic weight” of the EU as a whole, rather than competing on the world market at the risk of feeding price fever.
“Russia will no longer be one of our gas suppliers, and I think for a very long time, given Vladimir Putin’s behavior,” confirmed Thierry Breton, adding, “We have diversified our supplies, we do it in Qatar, with Norway, a lot with the United States.”
Regarding the high prices of liquid natural gas (LNG) sold by the United States, the European Commissioner notes that “it is not normal to pay four times more in Europe for what is produced in the United States” and assures that a meeting will address the issue in Washington soon.
