Many states have already taken measures to support citizens and businesses that have been particularly hard hit.
(Photo: dpa)
Brussels When the heads of state and government of the EU meet on Thursday and Friday, there will be one main topic: high energy prices. Many states have already taken measures to support citizens and businesses that have been particularly hard hit. But they are also calling for help from Brussels.
The “toolbox” that the EU Commission presented last week primarily contains measures that must be taken by the member states themselves, such as tax breaks or payments to poor households.
The funds that are available to the EU itself tend to have a long-term effect and primarily consist of becoming less dependent on oil and gas – which is already foreseen in the climate protection package. In addition, the EU Commission should monitor possible manipulations of gas and emissions markets. So far, however, she says that she has no evidence of anything like this.
At the EU summit, Poland will now propose to set up a financing mechanism against energy poverty as quickly as possible. This emerges from a position paper by the Polish government that is available to the Handelsblatt. “The support should […] combat the negative social impacts of EU climate policy now and in the future, ”the paper says.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The model for these considerations is the Climate Social Fund, which the EU Commission proposed in July together with a whole series of climate protection laws. This fund is intended to support poor households – either through direct payments or through grants when they invest in insulation, economical heating or electric cars.
States have to work out plans for money from the Climate Social Fund
Poland is the greatest beneficiary of the fund in the planning so far. A full 17 percent of the money should flow there, more than twelve billion euros. With this, Poland could also afford support services for energy-poor households, as they already exist in other European countries.
In the case of the Climate Social Fund, it is envisaged that the states draw up plans for exactly how they want to deal with the money. The EU Commission has to confirm these plans. Such a system is now also envisaging the Poles. It is surprising that such an idea comes from Poland of all places.
Spain suggests that the EU buy gas together to have better bargaining power.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Because the same system already exists with the Corona reconstruction fund and means that Poland has not yet received any money from this fund. The Commission is holding back the money because it does not see its lawful use in the country as guaranteed. Since the Polish Constitutional Court ruled that its own constitution is clearly above EU law in case of doubt, a quick payout seems very unlikely.
This judgment will be a topic at the summit anyway, even if it was not officially on the agenda recently. It is likely to be raised by the heads of state or government at dinner on Thursday. That should not be pleasant for the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. On Tuesday, he had to put up with sharp attacks in front of the European Parliament because of his understanding of the rule of law.
But Poland’s proposal has another problem: The climate social fund proposed by the EU Commission is to be financed from a new emissions trading scheme for buildings and traffic, which is to become active in a few years. However, it is controversial, and the Polish government explicitly rejects it. According to the current position paper, it is “less effective and socially more expensive” than other measures. The financing mechanism now proposed by Poland should therefore be fed from the general EU budget.
EU should buy gas together
A proposal from Spain, on the other hand, has a better chance of implementation: the EU should buy gas together in order to have better bargaining power. As long as participation in such a project is voluntary, the federal government will not oppose this. But she does not want to participate, it is said in government circles.
In Germany, companies buy gas for their own account and supply their customers with it. The federal government sees no reason to change anything. For the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, a decision on this would be helpful. He is under domestic political pressure and wants to at least introduce measures that can prevent another gas price crisis when the current one is over.
The French have not specified their proposal to decouple electricity from gas prices. They feed a lot of cheap nuclear power into the grid themselves. But electricity is expensive across Europe because it is also produced with gas. If the electricity price were to be capped, it would no longer be worthwhile for the operators of gas-fired power plants to produce electricity. But if they then shut down their systems, there would be power outages.
The Spanish and French proposals are currently being examined by the EU Commission. None of this can be found in the draft for the final document at the summit, which is available to the Handelsblatt. There is also no mention of redistribution, as proposed by the Poles.
More: With its policies, the EU has contributed to the gas price crisis