Europe is facing an ongoing energy crisis and a sharp rise in commodity prices, with high costs placing a significant burden on households, businesses and public budgets, highlighted Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Hlas-SD) at the EU Energy Council meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, calling for a swift, joint European solution and an amendment to state aid rules.
The urgency of the situation is underlined by the energy ministers' call for a joint meeting with EU finance ministers to be held as soon as possible, with a view to finding coordinated measures to protect households and businesses. Slovakia points out that high energy prices pose a serious threat to the competitiveness of European industry, production and jobs. The Slovak minister therefore reiterated her call for European state aid rules to be relaxed and more effective tools to tackle the crisis to be introduced.
Slovakia doesn't agree that the overall situation should be addressed through mandatory, across-the-board reductions in energy consumption for households and businesses. "We don't consider it to be right at a time at which people and businesses have been struggling with high energy bills for years, to impose further mandatory restrictions on consumption. High prices in themselves are a strong enough incentive to save energy wherever possible. The European Union's role must be to ensure sufficient energy supplies at affordable prices, not to place a further burden on households and businesses," emphasised Sakova.
Source: TASR
