Informal meeting of ministers responsible for energy

Ministers responsible for energy met in Prague on Wednesday (12 October). The discussions were aimed at clearly defining the European Commission's legislative proposals regarding joint purchases of gas or possible price capping. The informal meeting was also attended by representatives of countries of the European Free Trade Association.

“In the first part of the meeting, we focused on the issue of high gas prices and the search for a quick but, at the same time, effective solution. The discussion on this topic is not easy, each country has different conditions, different rules, different interests, but is crucial because we must mitigate the economic impacts,” said the Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela and adds: “I expect the European Commission will take this discussion into account during the preparation of the legislative proposal on this issue. It should be published by the Commission next week, and I believe that we will be able to discuss it at the formal Energy Council on October 25 in Luxembourg. Afterwards, we will most likely call another extraordinary meeting of energy ministers to seek approval.”

The main elements of the proposal should include a functional platform for joint gas purchases, increasing the transparency of the TTF price index and strengthening its resilience to speculative behaviour and enhancing energy savings and solidarity between Member States.

During the working lunch, the ministers discussed the energy preparedness of individual countries, the EU as a whole, as well as neighbouring regions before the coming winter.

In the afternoon session, the ministers also talked about broader aspects of the functioning of the European electricity market. “We also discussed the way how the market should be set up so that it can better respond to the current crisis situation and at the same time be prepared for the future energy mix. It will be low-carbon and more based on nuclear and renewable energy sources. We gave the representatives present the opportunity to comment on the possibility of solving this problem and thus provide the European Commission with guidelines for further work in the area,” added Minister Síkela.

The informal meeting of energy ministers was attended by the Director of the Agency for the Cooperation of European Regulators (ACER) Christian Zinglersen, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol, Director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community Artur Lorkowski, Vice President of the European Investment Bank Thomas Östros. Ukrainian Minister German Galushenko, described in his video-message the current situation in his country and called on all present to show solidarity and help with the supply of energy equipment.

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