EU - €500 MILLION PER DAY MORE, ONLY FOR FUEL INTAKE - Filenews 15/4 by Chrysanthos Manoli
According to the president of the European Commission, if the increase in the cost of importing energy products into the countries of the Union is divided equally over the 44 days of the war in the Middle East, the increase in money is equal to about €500 million per day. Total, €22 billion.
And the crisis is not over. They say, new negotiations are starting today and tomorrow in Pakistan, with Trump claiming that the Iranians are begging for an agreement, but who, despite the... pleas, show no signs of readiness for a disorderly retreat.
And if an agreement is reached in Pakistan, the energy crisis and the shortage of petroleum supply will not magically disappear. Governments, economists, stockbrokers and analysts are tirelessly repeating that the most expensive energy will be with us in the coming months. And the current additional cost of the war to the EU will soon be much greater than the 22 billion euros. reported yesterday by von der Leyen. After all, the International Energy Agency repeated it yesterday: April will be worse than March.
What this will mean for European economies and the government policies that will be implemented to deal with the effects is something we will see gradually.
The EU's much-discussed toolbox for energy normalisation does not seem to include anything beyond the usual "temporary and targeted measures". In any case, the benefit of the usual partial tax exemption measures rarely reaches consumers in full. And it is not expected to provide substantial help to European citizens this time either.
Perhaps, in fact, the support will be greater for businesses, which with the new phase of the energy crisis see any benefit from recent decisions of the Commission to support the competitiveness of European industry evaporating.
Von der Leyen said yesterday that the content of the energy toolkit would be presented to leaders at the informal Council meeting on April 23 and 24, in Cyprus. We are working, he said, for greater flexibility in the rules of state aid, in order to give temporary support to businesses in sectors that are most affected, with a temporary support framework that will be approved in April. Obviously, tourism will be included in the sectors that are most affected.
Perhaps this relaxation of state aid regulations for sectors affected by energy supply constraints and uncertainty is the measure that could have the most immediate positive effects on European industry.
Beyond that, the EU president essentially reiterated the wish for the member states to find a way to coordinate, so that they do not address the natural gas markets separately and at the same time and do not compete with each other. The old debate, that is, about joint offers for the purchase of natural gas. For which the needs are greater now, as it is urgent to buy very large quantities to raise the level of stocks, in view of next winter. However, this measure did not yield the expected results, when it was applied in the past.
Apparently, this is what von der Leyen had in mind when she stated yesterday that the reaction measures under discussion include the release of oil stocks from member states, in order to decompress prices. This measure is not expected to change the data in a substantial way either. Just as the 400 million barrels of oil released from the reserves of the countries of the International Energy Agency, a month ago, did not.
Without a final, complete and workable agreement between the belligerent powers, neither the supply will increase, nor will prices begin to fall. And the EU's role in finding an agreement is insignificant.
