Another national success took place today in Brussels, where the European Commission and 14 member states supported the Greek proposal for the European ones electricity networkswhich was recently filed in Europe by Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He specialized the proposal in today’s EU Council of Ministers The Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas.

The proposal consists of 4 pillars, for which Mr. Skrekas underlined: “our goal is a modern European electricity network, able to support and accelerate the green transition. Europe will get networks capable of transporting clean energy, which will permanently lower energy costs for all European consumers. A basic condition to achieve this is the increase of investments in this sector”.

1. Strengthening the electrical interconnections between Northern and Southern Europe.

2. Upgrading the network in the Western Balkans, as an electricity transmission corridor to the rest of Europe.

3. Further simplification of licensing for RES projects.

4. Creation of a special investment mechanism that will provide financing for these purposes.

The 14 member states that supported the Greek proposal are: Cyprus, Malta, Romania, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Also, Mr. Skrekas, during his position in the debate on the revision of the Electricity Market design, emphasized that deep cuts are needed to achieve a structural transformation in the current electricity system. As he said: “We need a new energy market model that is more ambitious and more efficient that meets the needs of the European economy and its citizens. We must not run behind developments. We have to define them. This can only be achieved through specific interventions, such as the decoupling of natural gas and electricity prices and the strengthening of investments in Renewable Energy Sources and storage”.

Greece achieved a significant reduction in natural gas consumption

Mr. Skrekas agreed with the extension of the regulation to reduce natural gas demand and emphasized that Greece has achieved a remarkable reduction in consumption by 28.4% from August 2022 to February 2023, compared to the previous year. As he stated: “We consider it very important to continue to reduce the consumption of natural gas in order to ensure the adequacy of supply in the coming winter as well.”

The goal, investments in the hydrogen market

Regarding the proposed Regulation for renewable gas markets, Mr. Skrekas said he was optimistic that the new Regulation would create the necessary regulatory framework to create a strong hydrogen market in the EU. and to make the necessary investments in this sector.