Twenty-two of the 27 EU member states have expressed preliminary interest in buying gas collectively for the next three years under the EU Energy Platform facility, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2023) Twenty-two of the 27 EU member states have expressed preliminary interest in buying gas collectively for the next three years under the EU Energy Platform facility, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said on Thursday.
"So far, 22 EU Member States have expressed their preliminary interest in aggregating gas demand of more than 17 billion cubic meters of gas for the next three years. I have encouraged the five remaining Member States to notify their volumes as soon as possible. This will be topped up by close to 4 billion cubic meters of gas demand signalled by Moldova, Ukraine, and Serbia," Sefcovic said following the second formal meeting of the facility's Steering board.
Sefcovic said the mechanism for collective gas procurement was progressing as scheduled.
This past November, EU energy ministers reached a final agreement to buy gas collectively under the facility that the European Commission proposed as a way out of energy crisis amid skyrocketing prices and slim supply. Under the mechanism, gas companies and firms consuming gas in EU countries should submit their gas import needs, and the EU, on its part, will hire a service provider to calculate the aggregated demand and seek offers from global gas suppliers to meet this demand.
