Ribera, "disappointed" because Brussels "falls short" with its proposal to limit the price of Russian gas

BRUSELAS, 30 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Third Vice President of the Government and Minister of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has indicated this Friday that she is disappointed because the European Commission has "fallen short" with its proposal to put a price limit on gas imports from Russia.

"This was a debate that already took place at the beginning of September and we are very disappointed with the non-proposal that the Commission has made", Ribera pointed out upon entering the Council of Energy Ministers of the EU, detailing that "it is a sensitive issue" and that Brussels is trying to find a point where all the Member States can respond positively.

"Unfortunately we think that the terms in which the Commission is making the proposals fall short of what Europe needs", added the head of Ecological Transition on the working document presented this week by the Community Executive and in which proposes establishing a maximum price for gas imports from Moscow to the community market.

In this sense, Ribera has indicated that some Member States consider that this "gas price purchase limit should only apply to Russian gas" while another 15 Member States have signed a letter requesting that this measure be applied "to all operations of gas that reaches the EU".

The third vice-president has described as "reasonable" that "tube gas suppliers are not treated the same as liquefied natural gas suppliers".

In a further step, Ribera has pointed out that "it is not reasonable for us to look the other way when there are many intermediaries and many operations that are being closed at prices that have nothing to do with production costs, or with the prices that are paid to the provider.

In this regard, Ribera explained that "there are three large suppliers of piped gas in Europe: Algeria, Russia and Norway" and added that "there should be talks with Algeria" since there have already been talks with Norway and with Russia there has been a break the dialogue.

The Minister for the Ecological Transition has emphasized that it is "important to work on the change of reference used by European operators" of gas, that is, the reference index for the price of gas in Europe, the TTF (Title Transfer Facility). Dutch.

Ribera has considered that "it cannot be the one that sets the prices of the contracts" in the EU and has expressed his will for the Twenty-seven to reach an "orientation in this regard, since "it does not respond to reality".

In this framework, the third vice-president has urged "to change the weight of the reference of the gas markets" to achieve a reduction in prices, "because all the pollution that we are experiencing from energy prices is closely linked to the reference used by operators in the gas markets".

"If we manage to change that reference, if we manage to make it much more adjusted to the real costs of production, we will be able to induce a significant reduction in energy prices," added the head of Ecological Transition.

Thus Ribera has argued that the TTF index "is not responding" to the "cost behind gas purchase operations" and that "it is generating enormous distortions in our prices in Europe".