EU holds emergency meeting to reform energy market

The electricity market, increasingly criticized in the face of wild price hikes, has served Europeans for 30 years, leading to low energy prices. France’s long-sought reform will be on the agenda for a September 9 meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels.

Sigella, who is currently president of the European Union, said the price of natural gas has reached 310 euros per megawatt, up from 18 euros in July last year.

The Czech minister added that the war in Ukraine, the reduction of gas supplies from Russia and technical problems that almost half of the maintenance of nuclear power plants in France contributed to the rise in oil prices. “We need to fix the energy market,” he tweeted.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted at a conference in Bled, Slovenia, “The surge in electricity prices clearly shows the limits of the current functioning of the market. It developed in a very different environment”. “That is why we are currently working on an emergency response and structural market reform,” he said. he said without elaborating.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday urged member states to reach agreement on reforms “quickly” and “coherently”. He said the current system “cannot be described as functioning if it leads to higher electricity prices like this”.

Calls for change to the common electricity market are growing after energy prices skyrocketed in the winter, fueling fears that the cost of living will increase.

The price charged to all electricity distribution companies in continental Europe determines the price of the last source of electricity to meet demand, mostly gas-fired power plants. A sharp drop in Russian gas exports to Europe has led to rising gas prices, along with rising electricity prices.

Last year, in a joint statement published in October 2021, nine member states, including Germany, strongly opposed any reform of the electricity market, arguing that the current system was effective in “contributing to innovation” and “facilitating transition”. “For green energies.

Some EU countries are demanding a cap on natural gas prices and a change in the functioning of the electricity market, and the EU Commission is trying to define a common position through negotiations with member states on that question.

It should be noted that the regular meeting of EU energy ministers is already scheduled for October 11-12.