Jorgensen: Europe has enough energy for winter, but many will struggle with bills
The EU energy commissioner expects no supply shortages but warns of a hard winter: around 50 million Europeans cannot adequately heat their homes.
Archive image · Photo: Europäische Kommission - Audiovisueller Dienst, Sergei Gapon, CE - Service audiovisuel, EC - Audiovisual Service, FACTST / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The European Union does not expect energy shortages this coming winter, but high prices will continue to weigh on households and businesses. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said so on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg. "We do not expect the security of supply issue as such," he said, adding that for struggling households "that might not matter." He said around 50 million Europeans currently cannot adequately heat their homes and that the number could rise.
Jorgensen said the EU was better placed than in 2022: it uses 18 percent less gas, and gas that once came 45 percent from Russia now comes from several suppliers. Gas storage, however, is only about 75 percent full at the start of the heating season, down from 83 percent a year earlier. On Oct. 28, wholesale gas briefly hit 100 euros per megawatt hour for the first time since December 2022. The commissioner said the crisis was also worse because it affects oil and oil products; twelve countries reaffirmed an accelerated release of 42.6 million barrels from strategic reserves by the end of January 2027.
Jorgensen urged member states to keep any fossil fuel support targeted and temporary and to cut their dependence on fossil fuels as quickly as possible through more renewables, heat pumps and electric cars. Swedish Energy Minister Ebba Busch called it "the second energy crisis in four years." At the meeting, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Slovakia presented a paper calling for a long-term EU strategy to protect the competitiveness of refineries.