BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 19. Instead of outbidding each other, Europeans should buy gas together, said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the preparation of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022, Trend reports October 19 via the Commission.
“For this, we will purchase together gas at EU level. Aggregation of demand will be mandatory for at least 15 percent of the volumes needed to fill gas storages. And the companies involved may form a ‘gas purchasing consortium'. We do this because we have learnt the lesson. We literally saw in August of this year, at the height of the filling season, how Member States were outbidding each other and thus really driving up the prices. We definitely can be smarter on that one. Pooling our demand is a must,” she said.
Ursula von der Leyen noted that the next point is about sharing gas in Europe.
“We know that some Member States are more directly exposed than others to Russian gas. The situation is especially challenging for landlocked countries in Central Europe. But in the end, if you look at our Single Market with highly integrated supply chains, a disruption in one Member State has a massive impact on all Member States. So, sharing gas is absolutely critical. Member States have already, since five years, an obligation under EU law to conclude solidarity agreements with their neighbours in their home region. However, if you look at what has been concluded so far, of 40 possible agreements only 6 have been concluded. This is simply not enough in times of a crisis like this one. This is why we will put in place default rules for Member States. These rules will be binding, as long as Member States do not conclude individual solidarity agreements. Energy solidarity is a fundamental principle of our Treaties, so let us bring that to life, it is very simple,” she explained.
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