Main conclusions of the Autumn European Council
Meeting in Brussels, the Heads of State and Government adopted a series of conclusions on energy, the economy, the war in Ukraine, critical infrastructure and external relations.
Energy
On energy, the European Council urged the Council and the European Commission to present specific decisions regarding:
- Joint gas purchases.
- New complementary reference value in the gas market.
- Limitation on episodes of excessive gas prices.
- A cap on the price of gas in electricity generation, v) greater transparency in the energy markets.
- Simplification of permit procedures for rolling out renewable energy with emergency measures (Article 122 TFEU).
- Energy solidarity measures,
- Greater efforts to save energy.
- Greater protection for households and businesses, especially the most vulnerable. It also called for increased investment in energy efficiency and infrastructure and invited the Commission to expedite the work on the structural reform of the electricity market.
Ukraine/Russia and Critical Infrastructure
The Heads of State and/or Government underlined their “firm support” for Ukraine in political, humanitarian, military and financial terms for “as long as necessary,” it urged the Belarusian and Iranian authorities to cease their support for Russia and reported that the EU will continue to improve the efficiency of all solidarity corridors to guarantee food security.
They also strongly condemned the acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream gas pipelines,and warned that the EU will provide a “united and resolute response to any deliberate disruption” of critical infrastructure or other hybrid actions.
Given this context, they called for rapid progress on the work on the proposal for a Recommendation about a coordinated approach to improving the resilience of critical infrastructure and about the rapid implementation of the revised Directive on the security of network and information systems (NIS Directive 2) and the Directive on the resilience of critical entities.
External relations
Finally, the European Council held a strategic debate about China; it discussed preparations for the forthcoming EU-ASEAN Summit (14/12/22) and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27, 6-18/11/22 in Egypt).
For this and other news of interest this the week, such as the European Commission’s work programme for 2023 and the holding of the Tripartite Social Summit, where the CEOE will participate, as well as a look at the main meetings of the week of October 24 to 28, please see our newsletter “The EU in Headlines”.
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