The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that the European Union's oil import bill has risen by 100 billion euros since the start of the war in the Middle East without acquiring a single "extra molecule". The leader of the Community executive has warned that the energy crisis could "intensify" with the arrival of winter.
In a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, she also said that citizens and businesses "are struggling" to pay their bills. Businesses are under "great pressure" and citizens are struggling to cope with their bills, a situation that "could intensify" with the arrival of winter, she specified. For this reason, she has called for "replacing" fossil fuels with clean electricity generated in Europe.
Nevertheless, Von der Leyen has ruled out resorting to "generalised" aid to cushion the impact on households and has instead backed "targeted" support for those who "really need it", arguing that indiscriminate measures would increase demand, favour higher incomes and entail "enormous costs". "There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the whole European Union. The different Member States have different energy mixes and face different pressures. Our role is to give them the tools and the flexibility to respond," she stated.
Joint purchases in the EU
In this context, Von der Leyen announced this Tuesday the creation of a new task force to strengthen the European Union's joint energy purchasing, with the aim of aggregating demand and commissioning acquisitions to a market operator. "We are going to launch a new task force to aggregate energy demand," she said.
The spokesperson has defended the need to take the model used during the 2022 energy crisis "to the next level" and move from the "simple matchmaking" between buyers and sellers to a system in which the EU pools its needs and centralises contracting.
The initiative is part of the response that Brussels is preparing in the face of rising energy prices, after gas has risen by 140% since the end of February and diesel has doubled in price, while fossil fuel imports have entailed an additional outlay of 100 billion euros since the start of the conflict, as the German conservative has stressed.
Energy supply
On the supply side, the Commission will launch a "strategic dialogue on European refineries", under the direction of Commissioners Dan Jorgensen and Andrius Kubilius, in an attempt to "reduce costs" and guarantee the bloc's needs "also for defence".
This measure adds to the release of 100 million barrels of diesel and crude agreed last week by G7 members to help stabilise global prices, as well as the decision to grant exporters an additional year of flexibility regarding methane. "This saves additional costs at a time of crisis," the Community President has argued, placing these measures among the supply-side actions to respond to current energy tensions.