EU mulls common gas reserve, intervention in energy prices

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – EU leaders will discuss plans on creating a strategic gas reserve for the bloc and decoupling electricity prices from gas prices at their upcoming summit, the head of the European Commission said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters during her visit to Estonia, Ursula von der Leyen admitted that the bloc has to face growing energy prices “because the price of gas is drastically rising.”

Von der Leyen explained that the EU is “very much dependent on the suppliers” since “90% of gas is being imported and 97% of oil is imported to the European Union.”

“The supply is not rising accordingly (to the demand), so we are very grateful that Norway is stepping up its production now, but this does not seem to be the case for example in Russia,” she said.

In contrast, the bloc is independent of renewables, 90% of this type of energy is produced in the EU and that is why the EU had “to invest in the European Green Deal in the renewables” in the mid- and long term, she added.

For the short term, EU leaders will assess “how to deal with storage, a strategic reserve and how we will take a look at the overall price composition of the electricity market,” with the possibility to decouple energy prices from gas prices, von der Leyen said.

EU heads of states and governments will hold a summit on Oct. 21-22.