Somewhere in the middle, trying to find a common ground is the Commission, which is led and behaved each time by whoever has the ability to push harder.
of Chrysostomos Tsoufis
Twenty-four hours before the crucial – albeit informal – Summit in Prague, the camps regarding the cap on natural gas have formed.
On the one hand, the 15 who have subscribed to the request to impose a general ceiling on natural gas.
The bloc is led by Greece and has so far managed to win alongside Spain, Italy and France (although Paris can also join the so-called flexible ones), Belgium, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Poland, Portugal , Romania and Bulgaria.
Those who are mainly reacting are the Germans and the Dutch, who reaffirmed their “love” on Tuesday at the Solz-Rutte meeting, and the Danes.
Berlin raises questions of disruption to European supplies, The Hague fears it will lose its energy market privilege once and for all, while Copenhagen is a natural gas exporter.
Somewhere in the middle, trying to find common ground is the Commission.
A Commission, which is led and led every time by whoever has the ability to push harder.
The momentum appears to be currently with 15, prompting Ursula von der Leyen to suggest compromise solution of cap on natural gas but as a temporary alternative until the new stock index is ready to replace the TTF, which now only represents natural gas coming to Europe via pipelines.
A measure that will supplement common natural gas supplies and the cap on natural gas used for power generation.
However, it is doubtful whether von der Leyen’s proposal will find receptive ears, as it is quite far from what the 15 want.
According to the representative of the Commission, Eric Mummer, the German politician talks about a cap on natural gas traded within Europe and not on what is imported into it.
At the same time, Germany has managed to unite against it almost all the member states – except the Netherlands – with the 200 billion euro subsidy package it decided. Olaf Solz will “hear” them on Friday but it is doubtful whether his ear will sweat.
The leaders will meet in the shadow of the assessment of the International Energy Authority that Europe can make it “without blood” this winter, but the hard times come in the winter of 2023.
European warehouses are 90% full.
Portuguese and Belgians are 100%. Poland and Denmark over 95%. Germany, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Sweden and France over 90%. The only disagreements are the Latvians with only 53%, the Bulgarians who without the Greek help would not have even this 76%, while the Hungarians are at 74%, also betting on the privileged relationship they have with Russia.
But these figures were achieved with Russian gas available most months of the year – even if only at 20% of available pipeline capacity. Next year, the warehouses must be filled without these quantities since only 1 out of 4 available pipelines now transports gas to Europe.
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