Ms Catharina Sikow-Magny:

Why did we make our proposal after 2021 when prices were already being seen to increase, especially after Asia caught up after the Covid lockdown? In 2021, we were still in a situation where the Russian attack on Ukraine was not foreseen in most member states, where gas was flowing normally from Russia and we were not in a crisis. We were perhaps approaching a difficult situation but one considered to be a normal economic situation after the Covid lockdown moving into more demand for liquefied natural gas, LNG, and gas, which then had an impact on prices on the EU side and on electricity.

I think the Deputy was referring to a measure in place in the Iberian peninsula where there is a support scheme whereby there is a levy on electricity consumers that is then used to lower the price of gas that goes to electricity production. We obviously studied that one as well as any other idea that came from any member state. Applying a measure such as that in the Iberian peninsula, which is relatively isolated from the rest of the Continent because of lack of infrastructure interconnection capacity, across the EU would have led to a considerable increase in gas demand. I remind the committee that, after the Russian attack on Ukraine, we were short of gas so it would have created a very difficult situation in terms of supply.

If the EU as a whole subsidised the price of gas in a similar way, we would have seen a lot of gas flowing to countries neighbouring the EU at subsidised prices so it would have been very costly to the EU overall. This is why we spent time analysing and assessing different schemes to find a scheme that would work best for the entire EU with the aim of having an impact on consumer prices and having the certainty that we would not create a surge of demand for gas that we did not have at the time.

On the question of retrospective application, the application of the regulation can only be from the date it entered into force, which was October 2022. As the Deputy rightly mentioned, those member states that do apply measures before that time apply taxation measures. They do not apply the regulation as it is. Taxation is a member state competence and member states may indeed decide on taxation themselves. If we were to propose taxation measures alongside the regulation that is now in place, we would need to look carefully at how they work together for the measure to work properly.

Regarding a possible extension of the regulation, the Commission is requested under the regulation to report by the end of the month on how it has worked and whether we propose to extend it. We will report a bit later than the end of this month. I would say we would report by mid-May at the latest simply because the input data we needed to receive from member states did not arrive on time by the end of January. That report is being finalised and we will report very rapidly to member states on our proposed way forward. Unfortunately, I obviously cannot tell the Deputy more than that because we are still in internal discussion and the decision-making process, but the report will be on the table of the Council around mid-May when member states can and will discuss it.