Online Debate

The EU energy platform: an insurance against energy market challenges?

07 June 2023

In the next episode of the #FSRDebates series, we will focus on the EU energy platform.

Established in reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war as an instrument to stabilise prices by providing alternatives to Russian gas supplies, the EU Energy platform in 2022 facilitated the signature of Memoranda of Understanding with several key gas exporting partner countries and enhanced international outreach to support the REPowerEU Plan.

The first round of joint gas purchases on 16th May this year successfully managed to attract bids from 25 companies, totaling more than 13.4 billion cubic meters of gas (bcm) – even more than the 11.6 bcm of joint demand that EU companies submitted through the recently established AggregateEU mechanism.

The whole operation has been brought to completion via AggregateEU, a mechanism by the service provider PRISMA, and concerns an overall volume of 10.9 bcm. This covers 8.7 bcm of gas via pipeline and 2.2 bcm of LNG.

In 2023 plans, the Platform is due to focus on organising demand aggregation and joint purchasing of gas for coming winter’s (2023-2024) gas storage filling season.

Moreover, EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič said the gas scheme would act as a “blueprint” for a “new market” for critical materials as well as hydrogen, that will help decarbonise energy-intensive industries.

The European Commission is leading the management of the platform, and acts to provide guidance between EU countries and the industry to ensure that the joint purchasing mechanism is well implemented and that it complies with EU competition rules.

Did the Platform meet the expectations so far? Is its success an evidence that solidarity can work in Europe? Are other commodities as suitable as gas for joint purchasing?