Energy Minister – “Green Deal is not responsible for high energy prices”

The EU Council of Environment Ministers is meeting in Luxembourg under the shadow of the rally of energy prices in the EU.

Greek Minister of Environment and Energy Costas Skrekas in his statements before the start of work stressed: “Energy prices have skyrocketed and we must protect vulnerable citizens and the green energy strategy. Because there are voices that attribute high values ​​to the EU strategy. That’s wrong. The green energy strategy leads to lower energy prices and reduced carbon dioxide emissions,” the minister noted.

Single European Energy Transition Mechanism

Answering a relevant question, he announced the re-promotion by Greece of the initiative for the creation of a Single European Energy Transition Mechanism in order to protect vulnerable citizens from high energy costs.

Mr. Skrekas returns the Greek proposal to this Council of Ministers.

According to information from OT.gr, in the context of this move, our country is said to have built an informal alliance with Spain and Poland so that the Greek initiative gains more supporters.

The target

The mechanism recalls aims to raise funds from greenhouse gas emissions auctions so that these amounts can then be distributed to Member States to implement measures to protect households and businesses from high energy costs.

However, similar initiatives seem to be taken by groups of EU Member States. in an effort to activate uniform measures by Brussels. A similar move was made yesterday by the finance ministers of Greece, France, Romania, the Czech Republic and Spain.

Commenting on yesterday’s initiative, analysts attribute the “alliance” to the political developments that are taking place in specific countries, with the result that governments want to avoid any political costs, as sources explained to OT.gr. For example, in France there are presidential elections in May, while in Romania there are political developments with the stability of the current government. The Czech Republic participates with the text of yesterday’s proposals as its energy mix is ​​dominated by lignite and seeks to extend its use. As far as Spain is concerned, the government of the Socialists has made tackling the energy crisis a major political issue.