Portugal urges Brussels to move ‘quickly’ with interconnections

On Tuesday, the government urged the European Commission to move “quickly” with interconnections in southern Europe, given that Portugal “could contribute more” to reducing gas consumption if it were better connected to other countries.

“In all our speeches, we have stated that it is important for the EU to quickly put the issue of interconnection on the short term, because if Portugal were better connected with the rest of Europe, it could now have a greater contribution to what solidarity asks for. ”, said Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro.

Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels after European energy ministers had already reached a political agreement on a goal to cut gas consumption by 15% by spring, fearing disruptions in supplies from Russia, Duarte Cordeiro stressed that “it is imperative that the European Commission understands that, in discussing these rules, it should quickly put on the agenda the strengthening of interconnections in southern Europe.

“Many countries, in particular Germany, recognize the need to strengthen the relationship, and the work must be done with a certain speed by the European Commission,” he added.

Announcing the consensus, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU indicated in a statement that “in an effort to improve the security of the Union’s energy supply, the member states reached today a political agreement to voluntarily reduce demand for natural gas by 15% this winter”, with “the possibility of triggering” Union Warnings” on the security of supply, in which case a reduction in demand for gas will become mandatory.”

According to the Council, the initiative now includes “certain exemptions and opportunities to request derogations from the mandatory reduction target to reflect the specific situations of Member States and ensure the effectiveness of gas cuts to improve security of supply in the EU.” .

In the case of Portugal, “this is suitable for countries that, due to weak interconnections, may see their target be reduced by eight percentage points from the originally set target if a gas reduction commitment is created,” Duarte Cordeiro said.

In addition, Portugal “can infer a number of circumstances” in which it is also found, “such as the production of electricity under system security or the need to use gas as a feedstock in irreplaceable industries or sectors,” he added.

The responsible minister also expressed his hope that “the joint procurement platform at the European level will be fully implemented” in relation to gas.

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a goal to cut EU gas consumption by 15% by spring, acknowledging that it would begin mandatory demand reductions in an emergency.

The goal is for Member States to reduce natural gas consumption by 15% between August 1 this year and March 31, 2023 (overall and compared to the historical average for this period, taking into account the period from 2017 to 2023) . ) to increase the European level of storage and create an airbag in case of emergency situations.

The idea is that in a typical winter, EU gas consumption will drop by 30 billion cubic meters, while in a long and cold winter this decline will drop to 45 billion cubic meters.

Initially, this proposal was opposed by such countries as Portugal and Spain, namely because of the lack of energy interconnection with the rest of Europe, but later derogations were introduced taking into account such features as the high dependence of electricity generation from gas, lack of synchronization. with the European electrical network or no direct gas connection.

Geopolitical tensions over the war in Ukraine have affected the European energy market, as the EU imports 90% of the gas it consumes and Russia accounts for about 45% of those imports, at varying levels between member states.

In Portugal, Russian gas accounted for less than 10% of total imports in 2021.