Media: Germany and France want to promote the idea of ​​joint purchases of gas from the EU

BERLIN, Sep 30 – PRIME. Germany and France are promoting the concept of a joint European platform for joint gas purchases for EU states, which, according to the authors of the idea, will avoid competition between countries and will have a deterrent effect on prices, writes the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

It is specified that this became known from a joint document of Brussels, Berlin and Paris, which sets out the position for the meeting of the Council of EU Energy Ministers, held on Friday. The document is at the disposal of Handelsblatt. The authors of the document call for promoting the concept of a joint European platform for gas purchases, the newspaper notes.

“We must combine all efforts to reduce prices for Europe. We call for a strengthening of the EU energy platform as a means of increasing the EU’s negotiating power,” the publication cites an excerpt from a joint document of the French and German governments.

The authors of the document also call for finding solutions through negotiations with the main EU gas partners.

The publication recalled that the idea of ​​gas purchases through the European procurement platform has been discussed in Brussels for several months. The EU Commission expects this to have a dampening effect on prices. Previously, each of the EU countries independently organized gas purchases. At the same time, it is noted that in some states gas purchases are exclusively in the hands of private companies, in other countries the main role is played by state players, as a result, this leads to a situation where the EU countries compete with each other as competitors. The idea behind the platform is to counter this.