How to cushion the social impact of soaring energy prices?

Brussels unveils this Wednesday an arsenal of temporary measures from which the Twenty-Seven can draw, and avenues for reform, but refuses to sacrifice its environmental ambitions.

As gas prices soar to all-time highs, driving electricity prices and threatening to derail economic recovery, the European Commission's 'toolbox' will offer recipes to ease consumer bills .

Brussels will encourage states to lower heavy taxes on energy and redistribute the benefits of rising prices to the most disadvantaged, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said on Monday.

In addition to the decisions already adopted by several governments (tax cuts, energy vouchers, targeted aid to the poorest), the Commission will give "the possibility of also lowering VAT", he said.

It must also present more ambitious lines of reform, examined at the European summit from 21 to 22 October.

Tight but tenable reserves

Paris wishes to revise the rules of the common electricity market, in particular the setting of prices deemed too dependent on the prices of fossil fuels. Madrid offers "group purchases" of gas and Athens a "transitional fund" absorbing price increases. But Germany and the Netherlands warn against "extreme measures", arguing that this is a temporary situation. “We have a well-functioning electricity market, allowing us to have very competitive prices for two decades. Interfering would be very dangerous, it could destroy all confidence in the market, ”warns Luxembourg Minister Claude Turmes.

Faced with divided states, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the project of a “strategic reserve” of gas, as demanded in particular by Spain.

In the immediate future, European gas stocks, at 76% of capacity against 90% on average over the past decade, are "tight" but "adequate to cover winter needs", assured Energy Commissioner Kadri. Simson.

The Bruegel Institute warns, however, of "shortages" if "these low stocks are poorly managed".

Orban criticizes EU environmental policy

Importantly, Ursula von der Leyen said she was ready to examine price formation and increase market "transparency". "We must look at the possibility of decoupling the prices of electricity and those of gas, because we have (in the EU) cheaper energies, for example renewables", she underlined, without mentioning nuclear energy. . The gas price crisis has revived the debate on nuclear power, a cheaper and carbon-free energy whose merits Paris praises but which is criticized by several states, Germany in the lead.

Some, like the Hungarian sovereignist leader Viktor Orban, have taken advantage of the soaring prices to attack the EU's “Green Deal” aimed at reducing its carbon emissions by 55% by 2030, and the CO2 market. where energy suppliers have to pay "pollution rights".

A speech refuted by the Commission, worried that the crisis would jeopardize its climate ambitions, which involve the gradual increase in the cost of fossil fuels: "Only 1 / 5th of the increase in current prices can be attributed to the increase in the carbon market", said Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the Commission.

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