Habeck at Council of Energy Ministers in Luxembourg

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck will be attending the Council of Energy Ministers in Luxembourg today. At today’s meeting, the Energy Ministers of the EU Member States will be discussing the package of measures on gas (the Gas Directive and the Gas Regulation) and the general approach on the Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. The tense situation on the energy markets will also again be an item on the agenda. The focus will be on the proposals of the European Commission, which had presented several measures to reduce and stabilise gas prices in its energy package of 18 October. In the European Council on 20 October, the Heads of State and Government had also called for more efforts to reduce gas demand, the common purchase of gas and the stablisation of gas prices. The Energy Ministers are now working on a package of measures to be implemented in order to reduce the high gas prices.

Minister Habeck said: "The energy package to stabilise gas prices presented by the European Commission last week and the decisions taken in the European Council are steps in the right direction. I explicitly welcome an obligation to buy gas via the EU purchase platform. It makes sense to join forces in Europe by pooling our gas demand and strengthening our purchasing power as we can thus achieve better prices. At the same time, we must continue to pursue ambitious gas saving targets and resolutely press ahead with the expansion of renewable energy. We must give priority to renewable energy, heat pumps and energy efficiency solutions and massively speed up their rollout."

The reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector is essential in order to attain the European climate targets and reduce dependencies on imports of fossil fuels. The EU Member States therefore aim to agree on an ambitious Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings.