Debate: A truly interconnected Energy Single Market to keep bills down and companies competitive
Date: WEDNESDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2022
Speaker: Maria da Graça Carvalho
Country: Spain
Language: EN

We really need to look at the interconnections – gas and electricity – that connect the Iberian Peninsula and France, but also the South and East of Europe. We need the floating storage regasification unit involving Finland, Estonia and Latvia. We need a second LNG terminal in Poland. Gas infrastructure reinforcement to increase export capacity from Belgium to Germany. Additional LNG terminals in Germany. Expansion of the capacity of an LNG terminal combined with the Croatian transmission grid towards Slovenia and Hungary. Expansion of the interconnector for Greece and Bulgaria. As you can see, it is also a question of investment. We really need to make sure that we are the proper continent to invest, and to invest in energy. Our crisis is also a crisis of energy supply, and we solve that by giving better conditions for investment, both for the private sector and also the public sector.  And we need fast-track procedures for our projects – both the interconnections, but also the renewable projects. We cannot afford it to take years still to have all the licences for projects to start. That is something that is of utmost importance: to have a speedy way for our projects to start, so investment and the directives and the regulations in place that will allow a speedy start for our projects.  Second point: if we want a hydrogen society, and I think we all do, as an important vector for Europe, we really need to have a plan: a plan for infrastructure, for the production of the clean energy, for the transmission, for the transport of this hydrogen, for the delivery of the hydrogen, and all that to cover Europe. It cannot be concentrated only in some regions in the centre of Europe. We need to have coverage for all the regions of Europe.  And again, we need a plan. We need the investment plan. We need a calendar. Also for mobility – again to fulfil our Fit for 55 – to have supplies for mobility and hydrogen for our mobility between 60 kilometres and 150 kilometres. It is the case for mobility and for hydrogen. We really need the huge investment that we need to plan. So we need to have all these conditions for the private sector and the public sector, and to start immediately.  On the question of the energy market, we are of the opinion in the EPP that we should intervene as little as possible in the market. We should allow the market to work, and all the intervention should be temporary and very well justified. And we are in certain times where we probably need interference for a short time and temporarily on the market.  But having said that, we also need to have more general governance for our energy – a multilevel, multisector level that links the gas market, the electricity market, hydrogen, heating and cooling that also takes into consideration the decentralisation and the digitalisation of the energy system that is going on. We need to connect all that. But that needs to be very well studied and we need to look carefully at the consequences. We look forward to the proposal from the Commission on this topic.