Emmanuel Macron will speak Monday by video conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the energy crisis and European solidarity to address it, before addressing the press, said the Elysee.
Their discussion, scheduled for 3:00 p.m., “will focus on the energy situation in Europe and the actions already taken, at both national and European levels, to preserve security of supply, influence electricity prices and maintain full solidarity between Member States. They will address the additional measures that can be taken to protect households and businesses,” said the French Presidency.
At the end of the meeting, around 4:00 pm, Emmanuel Macron will hold a press conference.
This interview takes place three days after a defense council that focused Friday at the Elysee on ways to avoid forced gas and electricity cuts this winter.
France will be able to “avoid binding measures” thanks to “sobriety and European solidarity”, particularly with exchanges with Spain and Germany, said at the end of the meeting Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Minister of Energy Transition.
France has “with these two countries important exchanges of gas and electricity and we have concluded that this reciprocal solidarity should be strengthened from this winter,” she said.
EU energy ministers will meet again on September 9 to discuss the situation at an extraordinary meeting. The European Commission is proposing to cap part of wholesale electricity prices, adopt regulated tariffs for the most vulnerable and strengthen incentives to reduce consumption, according to a draft consulted by AFP.
The European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni assured Saturday that the European Union was “well prepared” in case of a total halt in Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage and energy saving measures.
For its part, the German government announced on Sunday that it was going to release 65 billion euros to support purchasing power in the face of the energy crisis.
After painstaking negotiations within the coalition, it is also considering a contribution from the windfall profits of energy companies, which the French government is not currently planning.
The Russian giant Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, linking Russia to northern Germany, which was to resume service this weekend after a new three-day interruption for maintenance operations, will finally be “completely” stopped until the repair of a turbine of this vital pipeline for the supply of Europeans.
