The Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, requested that the European Commission immediately take concrete action on energy prices during his intervention at the Council of Energy Ministers of the EU, in which he participates together with the Deputy Minister responsible for Energy, Nikos Tsafos.

Among the items on the agenda of the Council taking place today in Luxembourg are the proposal for a REPowerEU Regulation on the gradual abolition of natural gas imports from Russia, the role of electrification for a competitive and clean transition, as well as the energy security of Ukraine and Moldova and the importance of their integration into the EU energy market.

Mr. Papastavrou, in charge of REPowerEU in the Council, supported the proposal for a Regulation for the gradual abolition of Russian natural gas – “we must stop financing the war”, he characteristically said – while underlining the importance of electricity prices, alongside energy security. “We support a realistic and carefully managed transition that will ensure affordability and security of supply. Energy independence must also be linked to low prices for households and businesses. But if Europe treats energy security and de-dependence as something disconnected from affordability, then we risk backfiring. The increased energy prices are not a political issue, but primarily a social and economic one,” he emphasized, among other things.

Mr. Papastavrou then called on the responsible EU Energy Commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, to take immediate concrete action: “Southeastern Europe is disproportionately burdened by the increase in electricity prices. We need action, not just coordination and dialogue. Actions along the lines of those already planned, such as the increase in the infrastructure budget, but also specific actions, specifically related to the adoption of the recommendations of the special European working group for the correction of market distortions and of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) which will finally allow for a single energy market in Europe”.

In addition, the EU must prevent the circumvention of the ban on the import of Russian gas introduced by the Regulation through third countries, with Mr. Papastavrou underlining that it is “necessary for strict compliance by all. That is why we welcome the express provision in the Turk Stream pipeline that protects us from circumvention of the regulation. There must be close monitoring, otherwise this whole effort will prove to be a futile endeavour.”

Finally, the Minister of Environment and Energy described, in closing, the role of Greece in this new context. “In Greece, together with Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, we are making every effort to recreate the flow from South to North, through the Vertical Corridor. We are mobilizing the Transmission System Operators (TSOs), however this is a collective effort and we need Europe to act united – especially for the countries adversely affected by this initiative, which we fully support.”