De Croo: “EU summit without a decision on energy prices would be a failure of Europe”

In the European Affairs Committee, De Croo looked back at the Prague summit and forward to the summit at the end of this week. The energy crisis and the European response to it dominate the Prime Minister’s agenda.

“Europe is facing the week of truth. It’s hit or miss. The time for apologies is over,” said De Croo. For him, the summit is therefore “the most important European Council in a long time”.

In order to avoid a repeat of the price race in the energy markets of last spring and summer, leaders must take the decision in principle to jointly purchase gas, solidarity and price control so that legal and operational preparations are ready by spring 2023, De argued. Croo.

For Belgium, the European Union must use its collective weight by switching to group purchases of gas on the world markets. “This is best done by creating a European cartel that has sufficient critical mass of European energy companies that can enter into long-term contracts without competing with other European players,” said De Croo. “This is the best guarantee to guarantee security of supply and to keep the price down.”

These group purchases must be accompanied by binding agreements on supply solidarity between member states, according to De Croo. In concrete terms, this means that countries with a higher dependence on Russian gas or countries that have difficult access to LNG must be assured that their gas supply remains sufficiently large. Belgium is also open to making further agreements to control and, where possible, further reduce gas demand.

Belgium has been knocking on the same nail for months: in the context of the crisis, there must also be a ceiling on the gas price. For De Croo, the decision in principle must finally be taken this week to work out a “temporary and urgent intervention in the gas price on the wholesale market”. “Provided that there are sufficiently clear agreements on security of supply and solidarity, it should be possible to finally take this step.” He has, “more than the past few weeks”, hopes that it will work. Together with Italy, Poland and Greece, our country has already drawn up a new proposal for a ‘dynamic gas price corridor’.

Finally, De Croo also wants to accelerate the reform of the gas price index (TTF) and the energy market.

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