Will encourage member states to reject new contracts to buy Russian gas
BRUSSELS, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The European Commission will ask Member States to extend the voluntary reduction in gas demand of 15% to next winter and will encourage both countries and companies to stop buying Russian natural gas and reject new contracts with Russia once the current ones have expired. .
"Committing not to renew existing contracts with Russia is the best way to give our trusted partners a long-term guarantee that significant demand will be maintained," explained the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, this Thursday before the Industry Committee of the European Parliament, in which the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, has also intervened.
Both have appeared before the MEPs to give an account of the situation in the energy market one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused, according to Simson, "a tremendous change in the European energy system".
Since then, the commissioner explained, the objective of the European Union has been to try to completely get rid of Russian gas as soon as possible without losing sight of security of supply and "win the energy war".
Among the steps that have been taken to date, the commissioner has highlighted that the voluntary reduction in gas demand of 15% compared to the last five years is "the best guarantee" to reach an adequate level of storage in November, reason for which it has advocated for extending this measure, which expires on March 31.
Although he has stressed that the EU is in a "good position" to end this winter without shortages and start the next replenishment season with "confidence" and a "half-full" storage, Simson has also warned that the EU must not " hope" that things are getting "easy.
"This year will be difficult and the next one too; there are still many uncertainties and we have to maintain a healthy and prudent balance between supply and demand," he stressed, before also advocating a "bolder" push for renewables and moving forward which will launch a hands-on initiative to promote biomethane later this year.
Likewise, it has focused on the energy package that Brussels will present next week and which includes the law for a net zero emissions industry, the regulations on critical raw materials and the reform of the electricity market.
For his part, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, has warned, along the same lines as Simson, of the "difficulties" that next winter may pose for the EU's gas supply , which he has asked not to fall into an "overconfidence".
