“We are fully on schedule,” said the European executive’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, when asked regarding the appeal launched at the end of last week by the Chairman of the Board, Charles Michel. A few days before an extraordinary meeting of European energy ministers (September 9), the Belgian increased the pressure on the Commission, in an interview with Belgian media. “We urgently need concrete proposals,” he said, as energy will be on the agenda of the next summit, scheduled for October 6-7.
In the middle of last week, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also referred to Europe most of the solution to be found to bring down prices on the energy markets, reiterating his plea in favor of an intervention on the formulated gas market since March.
This “extremely complex” work is in progress, assures the Commission. President Ursula von der Leyen will take advantage of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the permanent representatives of the 27 (Coreper), in view of the debate on the State of the Union next week in Strasbourg, to discuss the energy files in preparation of the Council of Energy Ministers this Friday. By the end of the week, the Commission will finalize an informal document (“non paper”) which will set out “the state of our reflections and the development of our proposals”.
“It takes work before finalizing our proposals, given the extreme complexity of the energy issue and the sensitivities at work, to ensure that our interventions produce the right results, in terms of impact on consumers or reduction demand strategy. This work is still in progress”, explained Eric Mamer.
The spokesperson recalled that the Commission had announced that it would be making proposals at the beginning of next year on the structure of the electricity market, and that it was necessary by then to consider emergency measures to deal with a worsening situation. “So I think we are fully on schedule. What we put on the table will be all the more useful as we have taken the time necessary to analyze the problem in all its aspects,” he said.
