Southeast European countries to press for fairer electricity market at EU Energy Council

The European Commission has agreed that a joint request from Bulgaria, Greece and Romania regarding the faulty functioning of the electricity market will be debated at the October 15 Council of Ministers, Romania’s Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja announced at a briefing after a government meeting.

Previously, Greece's Energy Minister Theodore Skylakakis said in September 9 that the three countries are working together to develop a long-term solution to combat soaring electricity prices in Southeast Europe. He warned that insufficient interconnections between Southeast and Central Europe has created what he described as an "energy island" in the region, and unusually high energy prices.

Burduja also commented in a Facebook page on October 3 that it is not normal for Eastern Europe to pay much higher prices for energy than Western Europe, as has happened in recent months

“If we contribute to the decarbonisation process and the green transition, then we request to have the same rights – meaning access to electricity at a competitive price, comparable to the price that other countries pay,” Burduja told the briefing.

He claimed that Central European countries impede the free functioning of the day-ahead market, containing the pressure put by Ukraine and Moldova on the market to a handful of countries in the eastern part of the continent.

Burduja pointed to Austria and Slovakia as the countries that he said do not allow for free flow of cheaper electricity from the western part of the continent to the eastern part. 

“The additional demand for energy from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine puts additional pressure on prices in our region,” he explained.

He presented a series of graphs, according to which, on July 11, the day-ahead price in Romania was €190 per MWh, while in France it was €78, in Spain €86, in the Czech Republic €100, in Austria €75 and in Hungary €264. On September 2, the prices in Romania and Bulgaria were the highest in the region, namely €234 per MWh, very close to the prices in Greece and Hungary, while the price was €104 per MWh in France, €116 in Spain and €115 in Germany.