The EU is called upon to deal with the immediate energy crisis, with skyrocketing prices, but also with the imposing challenge of the ecological transition. And on this he will have to choose which sources to exploit, which to save and which to abandon in the next phase of transition. And it will do so by December. At the end of the EU summit, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, drew her line. “If we look at the medium and long term aspect, we will work on other measures to increase the resilience and independence of the European Union: we want to explore how to establish a strategic gas reserve, explore the possibility of joint procurement, we will intensify the outreach to different suppliers to diversify sources of supply and we need to speed up the work on interconnection, “he explained.
“In parallel to all this, we will evaluate the functioning of the gas and electricity market as well as the ETS market and will report towards the end of the year”, he added. “This brings me to the energy mix of the future: it is obvious that we need more renewable and clean energy, if we consider the cost of producing renewable energy, for solar it is ten times cheaper than ten years ago. ‘wind energy is volatile, but’ it is 50% cheaper than ten years ago, so there are renewables and they are sources that we have at home. Alongside this we need a stable source, nuclear for example, and during the transition also of natural gas. As we already said in April, we will present the proposal on the taxonomy shortly “, announced the leader of the EU executive, opening some glimmers for nuclear power. “nuclear and renewables also give us independence,” he added.
Salvini immediately in favor: “Immediately review the positions on nuclear power”
“We also talked about nuclear power. Some countries are asking for it to be included among non-polluting energy sources”, confirmed Prime Minister Mario Draghi. “The Commission will proceed to a proposal in December. There are very divisive positions in the Council. We will see which nuclear power and then in any case it takes a very long time”, he added. The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, took the ball: “Well the EU, even in Italy we need to rethink and overcome the no to clean and safe nuclear power of the latest generation, Lega ready to present a bill”, he declared . Returning to Brussels. Everyone agrees on the inevitability of renewables. The European Council strongly supports this strategy, despite the continuing drawbacks of Poland, Hungary and, to a lesser extent, the Czech Republic. There is also no doubt that gas, considered cheap and stable, qualifies as “transition energy” . But each Member State has a different energy reality and its own perception of the current price crisis, with “differences on causes, effects, duration and how to deal with it”, diplomatic sources acknowledge.
Nuclear energy, the policies of the member states
Germany will not abandon coal before 2040, but will cease with nuclear power in 2022, while France has the second largest atomic park in the world and wants to strengthen it. Spain’s main gas supplier is Algeria, Ireland imports it from Scotland and Finland gets it from Russia, as Lithuania did until it started bringing it from Norway. Therefore, wide-ranging reflection, with profound political, economic and social implications, must take into account “the diversity and specificity of the situations of the Member States”, affirm the conclusions approved by the Council. The summit also undertook to assess whether “certain commercial behaviors” in the gas, electricity and ETS markets “require more regulatory measures”. There are countries, such as Spain, which believe that the electricity market “is not sending the right price signals” while other partners, such as Poland, believe that energy is becoming more expensive, also due to speculation on emissions. . The conclusions of these analyzes will be known in the coming months, even if the Commission’s premise is that there are no indications of errors or manipulations. One of the issues at the center of the energy debate, which is gaining momentum in the face of the need to release less Co2 and the high prices of hydrocarbon imports, is nuclear energy, which represents 26% of electricity in the EU and 13% of the final energy consumption.
Thirteen of the 27 EU member states have nuclear reactors and, although some are moving towards abandoning this source of generation as the plants end their life cycle, ten countries are pushing to identify it as a green source. Nuclear energy is “an economic, stable and independent source of energy”, says the group of countries, led by France and made up of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania. They would like the atomic generation to be seen as a sustainable investment in the “taxonomy” rules that the European Commission prepares, so that it opens the door to friendly financing conditions. Brussels, which claims to be technologically neutral, has been postponing this political decision for years. The price crisis coincides with the start of legislative negotiations to reach the EU goal of accelerating CO2 emissions cuts by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990. Poland and Hungary have already directly attacked the Commission proposal European Union, linking rising prices to climate policies and accusing the Commission of endangering the middle classes, an extreme concern in Brussels, the sources point out. It also creates uncertainty not knowing how long the price escalation will last. The Commission believes the shortage will ease in April, when Russia’s new Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to start pumping gas to Germany via the Baltic. Other countries, such as Spain, fear it could drag on. “No one guarantees me that this price increase will be resolved in a few months”, said the French President of France, Emmanuel Macron, at a press conference.
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