Proposals Inc.Joint Gas Purchases, Dynamic Price Limit; All Needs MS Signoff

The European Commission has issued its proposals for dealing with the energy price crisis (link here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail...). The primary measures are as follows:

• Aggregation of EU demand and joint gas purchasing to negotiate better prices and reduce the risk of Member States outbidding each other on the global market, while ensuring security of supply across the entire EU;
• Advancing work to create a new LNG pricing benchmark by March 2023; and in the short term proposing a price correction mechanism to establish a dynamic price limit for transactions on the TTF gas exchange, and a temporary collar or bandwith to prevent extreme price spikes in derivatives markets;
• Default solidarity rules between Member States in case of supply shortages, extending the solidarity obligation to Member States without direct pipeline connection to involve also those with LNG facilities; and a proposal to create a mechanism for gas allocation for Member States affected by a regional or Union gas supply emergency.