EU ideas against energy crisis: don’t cut people off from gas
The European Commission has been under pressure, especially from pan countries, to come up with ideas that could help ease the pain for consumers as energy prices hit energy prices across Europe.
In this regard, the Commission seems to be in favor of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Last week, he argued in favor of having solutions searched for ourselves before considering a European approach.
The Commission’s ideas therefore do not go much further than tips on what countries can do at their own expense.
Vouchers, don’t close
Examples include: support poor people by paying part of the energy bill or through energy vouchers. Or: make payment deferral possible if this is not already the case.
Make sure people are not cut off from gas and electricity this winter is idea number three.
Tip four: reduce the energy tax. No decision has yet been made on a temporary reduction.
The last tip that can be directly benefited from: support for companies in need, but within the existing European state aid rules. Those rules have been around for years and are not being changed for this purpose.
Longer term: buying together?
In order to prevent the same kind of problems in the future, the European Commission is speculating on measures that can be prevented.
The Spaniards in particular would like to see a plan for interested gas purchase. The Commission ‘also one of the options’ in this regard as one of the options.
The ideas of the European Commission will be discussed by government leaders at the European Summit on 21 and 22 October. A few days later, the energy ministers of the EU countries also discuss what to do.