Involve the European Parliament on energy

"During the COVID pandemic, the European Parliament showed that it is capable of acting swiftly and decisively. There is no reason to shut out the democratic representation of European people from the decision-making process. The future of clean and secure energy is a common good that concerns all Europeans. Parliament and EU governments must be involved at the same level. Swift action must not come at the expense of democratic legitimacy", explained EPP Group MEPs Markus Ferber and Christian Ehler.

Their comment come as the European Commission is about to present a package of proposals to tackle rising energy prices, focused on gas, and which reportedly do not include the European Parliament in its approval process.

The package is expected to contain a temporary mechanism to limit short-term gas prices and a proposal to facilitate joint gas purchases, both of which were called for by the EPP Group for months.

With regard to the joint purchase of gas: "With this package, the European Commission is finally starting to address the supply side of the energy crisis. A joint purchasing platform for gas is long overdue. This is the kind of initiative the European Commission should have launched on day 1 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine", they explained.

"We must not end up in a situation where Member States compete with each other for the highest subsidies and boldest market intervention. Going it alone, as the German Social-Democrat government has proposed with its own €200 billion gas price relief package, is not the solution at all. That is why it is important that the Commission revises the temporary state-aid framework to make it fit for a challenging winter", concluded Ferber and Ehler.