The European Union is not sufficiently prepared for a new gas supply crisis, warned the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in a report published today and quoted by BTA.
The ECJ, which examines the value and effectiveness of EU policies, says the union should improve its system for monitoring the availability of gas across the bloc, simplify procedures for member states to report on the sustainability of their supplies and to improve cooperation between EU countries.
The ECP report takes stock of the supply crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the invasion, about 45 percent of EU gas imports came from Russia. Wholesale gas prices reached 339 euros ($428) per megawatt hour in August 2022, compared to 51 euros a year earlier.
Although the EU has managed to reduce its dependence on Russian gas and restore prices to pre-crisis levels, more work needs to be done to prepare the bloc for another supply shock in the future, auditors say.
For example, cooperation between EU countries is still insufficient. "Many member states are still reluctant to sign bilateral solidarity agreements," the ECP said in a statement. "Some EU countries would even foresee an interruption of gas supplies to a neighbor in response to an emergency," the regulator notes.
"Overall, we found that the pre-crisis EU framework did support security of gas supply, albeit unevenly, but the critical importance of crisis response measures could not be demonstrated, although they may have sent signals to help stabilize the market", said João Leão, Portuguese economist, university professor and politician, member of the European Court of Auditors, at a press conference.