The European Union is moving towards a reform of the electricity market system to protect households and businesses from price volatility and to support access to safe energy from clean sources.
With this in mind, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the actions to be taken and the market structure to be achieved.
The current system has given the EU an efficient and well-integrated market for years, allowing member states to reap the economic benefits of a single energy market, ensuring the safety of supplying and encouraging the decarbonisation process. However, some shortcomings have emerged. In the current crisis of high and volatile electricity prices, the economic burden has been passed on to final consumers. The European Commission therefore considers it necessary to implement a reform to better protect families and businesses from energy prices, increase resilience and accelerate the transition pursued by the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU plan.
The public consultation, which will remain open until 13 February 2023, will contribute to the work of the Commission to prepare an indicative legislative proposal for the first quarter of this year.
The consultation will focus on four main areas:
- reduce the dependence of electricity bills on short-term fossil fuel prices and promote the spread of renewable energy;
- improve the functioning of the market to ensure security of supply and make full use of alternatives such as storage and demand management;
- strengthening consumer protection and empowerment;
- improve transparency, surveillance and market integrity.