The EU is not in an energy crisis as severe as the one experienced in 2022, EU commissioners said today, pushing back against talk of suspending the bloc's emissions trading system (ETS) or changing current power price setting. Releasing oil stocks is also not on the table, for the time being.
"I don't think that killing the carbon price is going to send any positive message to anyone," Teresa Ribera, European Commission executive vice-president said. "It could derail the efforts and could strand early movers, and could prevent our competitiveness," Ribera added, while presenting a package of longer-term measures to push down energy prices.
Ribera pointed to a review of the ETS scheduled for this year and said the current situation calls for "dedicated and short-term" measures that should "avoid" killing long-term signals for clean energy transition.
"We cannot change the framework conditions for green industry. We need to give security for our investments," EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said, while also defending marginal power pricing. "The number of hours where gas sets the price has gone drastically down," he said, compared with gas prices in 2022 when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
Jorgensen today took part in discussions with IEA energy ministers on the "potential" release of oil stocks.
"We don't have a security of supply problem as of yet in Europe. But others in the world are in a different situation," he said. But he is "very mindful" that the situation is changing quickly. The IEA governing board will soon present in-depth analysis on the pros and cons of releasing stocks, and how many, he said.
