EU plans Sept 30 summit to greenlight emergency energy plans

By Jason Hovet and Kate Abnett

PRAGUE/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union vitality ministers will try and approve new bloc-wide measures to drag down hovering fuel and energy costs at an emergency summit on Sept. 30, after Brussels proclaims the proposals this week.

The European Fee is drafting a bundle of measures geared toward cushioning people and companies from surging vitality prices which are stoking record-high inflation, hampering industrial exercise and inflicting sky-high payments upon households forward of winter.

Czech Business Minister Jozef Sikela stated on Tuesday EU international locations’ vitality ministers will maintain an emergency summit, giving international locations a chance to log off on the EU proposals – and overcome the divisions between international locations on one of the best ways to sort out the disaster.

“On September 30, we are going to end what we began final week,” Czech Business Minister Jozef Sikela stated in a tweet, referring to a gathering the place EU ministers debated the vitality measures.

“I’ve simply convened one other extraordinary Vitality Council to debate the Fee’s proposals for coping with excessive vitality costs,” Sikela stated.

European Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen is predicted to unveil the proposals in a speech on Wednesday – firing the beginning gun on two weeks of intense negotiations, by which the EU’s 27 member international locations will try and redraft the proposals into ultimate legal guidelines that they will all approve.

A draft of the Fee proposals, seen by Reuters, would impose a cap on the revenues non-gas fuelled turbines could make from promoting their electrical energy, and pressure fossil gas corporations to share extra income. Governments can be required to make use of the money to assist customers and firms going through sky-high vitality payments.

EU diplomats say there’s broad assist for the income cap for non-gas turbines, in addition to plans to impose electrical energy demand cuts. However international locations are break up over different concepts – together with a fuel value cap, which was not included within the draft Fee proposals.

The draft doc stated oil, fuel, coal and refining corporations must contribute a 3rd of the excess taxable income they make in fiscal 12 months 2022.

An earlier draft of the proposal, seen by Reuters, had steered the income restrict for non-gas energy turbines like wind, photo voltaic and nuclear vegetation can be set at 200 euros per megawatt hour.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet, Kate Abnett; Modifying by Kirsten Donovan and David Evans)