Czech EU presidency says two proposals exist for setting most power costs

© Reuters. Czech Minister of Business and Commerce Jozef Sikela provides a information convention throughout a rare assembly of European Union power ministers in Brussels, Belgium July 26, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron

PRAGUE (Reuters) – There are two proposals within the European Union on the right way to set most costs on power that the bloc’s power ministers will talk about on Friday, Czech Business Minister Jozef Sikela stated on Tuesday, based on CTK information company.

Sikela stated the Czechs, who maintain the rotating EU presidency, have been gathering member states’ views on the proposals, which embrace both separating the excessive market value of gasoline from the costs of energy vegetation producing electrical energy from gasoline; or setting a cap on costs charged by producers from lower-cost vegetation akin to these utilizing renewable sources, nuclear gasoline and coal.

EU international locations are scrambling to tame record-high energy costs which have shot up as Russia halted most gasoline flows to Europe in response to sanctions and to European help for Ukraine’s defence in opposition to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

A draft EU doc, drafted by the Czech presidency and seen by Reuters on Sunday, stated the ministers will think about choices together with a value cap on imported gasoline, a value cap on gasoline used to supply electrical energy, or quickly eradicating gasoline energy vegetation from the present EU system of setting electrical energy costs.

It additionally proposed to supply liquidity for power market individuals.

An earlier doc on the European Fee’s upcoming proposals stated they need to embrace a value hole for energy turbines that don’t run on gasoline. They’d additionally embrace an EU-wide discount of consumption, and utilizing income above the worth caps to assist shoppers pay their payments.

The rationale for hovering electrical energy costs is that the market value is ready by the most costly energy vegetation working to fulfill demand, which for the time being are vegetation utilizing costly gasoline.

Sikela stated separating gasoline costs from these of electrical energy may result in increased gasoline consumption, which was not an issue of the second plan.

Sikela stated there was an settlement on offering credit score to merchants to boost market liquidity. He stated the presidency deliberate to launch a abstract of member states’ positions on Wednesday.

He stated the Czech authorities was engaged on a nationwide resolution alongside the European one.