Supply security and simplifying investments for the transformation of the energy industry should be the main focus of EU electricity market reform, the Czech Industry and Trade Ministry revealed.
Reforming the EU electricity market is among the Commission’s key proposals to address skyrocketing energy prices, as seen during the most of 2022. Member states were supposed to submit their proposals and views by 13 February.
According to Czechia, however, reform should provide a stable legislative framework to attract investors to the energy sector better, and protect households and industry from a volatile market. The country also calls for strengthening the security of supplies and emergency preparedness of the energy system.
“Importantly, we cannot look at the market review only through the lens of the past year, but need to look at the whole system holistically, reflecting developments in the energy transition, and monitor and respond to challenges in the world so that the new market responds to this,” Industry and Trade Ministry spokesperson David Hluštík told the Czech News Agency.
Meanwhile, Czechia is also pushing for the respect of the so-called “tech neutrality principle”, particularly for building new electricity plants, EURACTIV.cz has learnt. The aim is to ensure the public budget can be used to build new blocks of nuclear power plants.
Due to Czechia’s high dependence on Russian fossil fuels and the country’s unstable electricity providers, Czechs faced the highest energy prices compared to other EU countries these past months.
For now, Czechia produces the leading share of the electricity from fossil-fired plants and nuclear plants, while the renewables share was only 3.7% in 2022.
The country significantly simplified the rules for installing renewable energy sources by reacting to high energy prices and the need to cut its dependence on Russian fuels.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
