EU Energy News Bulletin

This is an update on the actions taken by the European Union to tackle the current energy crisis. For actions taken by the UK government, please see Energy News Bulletin (UK).

• ¨ EU continues sanctions against Russia, attempting to destabilise Russia’s economic situation.

• ¨ Ukraine has been successfully connected to the EU electricity grid. The operation was initially scheduled for 2024, however took only two weeks to complete.

• ¨ Any import duties on Ukrainian exports to the EU have been suspended, and progress has been to enable their access to the Single Market.

• ¨ Key aim is to remove dependency on Russian fossil fuels through joint storage for future energy generation, currently exceeding target at 84%.

• ¨ EU reliance on fossil fuels has also been diversified to other suppliers including Algeria, Norway and the United States, reducing Russia’s gas export to the EU from 40% last year to 9%.

• ¨ EU are encouraging citizens to reduce demand at peak hours through changing their behaviour with the aim of conserving supply and lowering prices.

• ¨ Proposal of a windfall tax on electricity and fossil fuel companies in order to channel excess profit, predicted to be in the region of 140 billion euros.

• ¨ There is also a commitment to undertake a ‘deep and comprehensive’ reformation of the energy market to decouple the dominant influence of gas on electricity prices.

• ¨ This reform will also include separating energy generated from renewable sources into a separate market, allowing consumers to benefit from lower electricity prices due to reduced cost of generation.

• Information can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_22_5389