BRUSSELS, 24 November – RIA Novosti. At a press conference, Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Josef Sikela said that the energy ministers of the EU countries have reached a preliminary agreement on a new mechanism for joint purchases of “blue fuel” in the EU for the winter of 2023/2024.

“I am very pleased that we have agreed on the content of both decrees on joint gas purchases and solidarity measures, as well as project permits in the field of renewable energy sources. There is no need for additional negotiations on these decrees.” aforementioned.

The aim of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union is to formally agree on an arrangement, including a joint procurement mechanism, at the next extraordinary meeting of the union’s energy ministers, likely on 13 December, an EU source told reporters earlier on Thursday. Said it was arriving.

Sikela confirmed that such a meeting is tentatively scheduled for that date.

In mid-October, the European Commission proposed a new set of measures to tackle the energy crisis in the EU; these include the introduction of a joint purchase of about 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas to fill the Union’s storage facilities for the winter of 2023-2024. . This would be about 15% of the EU countries’ target to replenish their reserves. At the same time, “request picking” for this volume of gas by EU companies will be a mandatory process, but they can then decide whether or not to buy this fuel.

The mechanism designed by AK cannot be used to purchase Russian pipeline “blue fuel”.

According to the European Council, consolidating demand at the union level would give it a greater advantage over sellers when purchasing gas on world markets, and would also eliminate unnecessary competition between union states for that fuel.