The European Union launches its first call for tenders for joint gas purchases

2023-05-10 18:38:57

European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels on May 10, 2023. BOGDAN HOSE / EU

The Twenty-Seven talked about it for months. On Wednesday May 10, the European Union (EU) finally launched its first international call for tenders for group gas purchases. “This is a historic step. We are leveraging the collective economic weight of the EU to increase our energy security and tackle high gas prices”commented Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic.

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A total of 77 European companies (the scheme also includes Ukraine, Moldova and the Balkans), including energy distributors or energy-intensive industrialists, have decided to take part, with the intention of buying 11.6 billion cubic meters.

International suppliers – only Russians are banned – can now submit bids to meet this demand until Monday, May 15, when buyers and sellers will be matched. Deliveries will be made between June 2023 and May 2024. Four more tenders – one every two months – will follow by the end of 2023.

“Robust interest”

The Commission-led platform helps European businesses, especially SMEs, to “establish new business relationships with alternative suppliers”, at a time when the EU is seeking to get rid of its dependence on Russian gas, insisted Maros Sefcovic. Moreover, the mechanism “offers international suppliers the opportunity to expand their customer base”continued the commissioner, underlining the “robust interest” that the European initiative arouses among the gas producers, whether American, Norwegian, Algerian or Azerbaijani.

When energy prices soared, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Gazprom cut off their gas tap, Europeans tried, by all means, to depart from Russia. In order to achieve this, they have adopted a set of measures combining energy saving, increasing the power of renewables, diversification of supply and filling of stocks.

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In December 2022, in particular, the Twenty-Seven decided to buy gas together, or at least to try. Some countries, first and foremost Germany, did not wish to embark on this path, preferring to go it alone, even if it meant raising prices for their partners. The recalcitrants also considered the matter complex insofar as, contrary to the precedent of the vaccines against Covid-19, which the Europeans chose to buy together, it is not the Member States which supply themselves with energy, but companies.

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