SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE: Greece will form a “Balkan front” with Romania and Bulgaria in the matter of high energy prices compared to Western Europe. “The EU must intervene”
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Greece is launching an initiative to form a common front with the Balkan countries of the European Union on electricity prices, as their dramatic rise, first seen in south-eastern Europe in July, appears to be more than temporary, but tends to become permanent and its effects cannot be combated by government subsidies, writes the Greek publication Kathimerini.
Western European countries seem to have transferred the burden of supplying electricity to Ukraine (whose production and infrastructure have been affected by Russian incursions) to Greece and the rest of Southeast Europe, the Greek publication writes.
“It is not possible for Austria to have a price of 154 euros and the neighboring interconnected market in Hungary to have a price of 238 euros. Something is wrong and the EU should see this and intervene,” a Greek government official told Kathimerini, revealing that the government is taking steps to form a “Balkan front” together with the governments of Bulgaria and Romania.
They will require either strengthening energy flows from Western Europe to Ukraine, or financing Balkan countries to support affected businesses and consumers.
In addition to large price discrepancies with Western markets, Athens, Sofia and Bucharest will base their application to the EU on the findings of independent national competent authorities investigating whether limited flows from Western Europe to Ukraine are indeed due to interconnection capacity, as well as how the algorithms that regulate energy flows from the cheapest to the most expensive markets work.
This front comprising Greece, Romania and Bulgaria follows a front of industries from the three countries established in July, with the first wave of price increases.
In a joint letter addressed to the Directorate-General for Energy and the Directorate-General for Competition of the EU, the Industrial Consumer Associations of Greece, Romania and Bulgaria raised the issue of the huge price discrepancies between the markets of South-Eastern Europe and the rest of the European markets and the unfair competition that they cause it to their detriment.
The letter was sent on 17 July and, following the EU’s reply letter, received on 2 August, stating that the matter had been referred to the Agency for the Cooperation of European Regulators (ACER) for investigation, the three industry associations have sent a second letter of protest on August 29.
