Electricity deal is a victory for consumers and innovation

“Lower prices for electricity, a real choice of energy supplier for consumers and much stronger incentives for new technologies. These are among the concrete results that can be expected in the EU internal electricity market in the future”, said Krišjānis Kariņš MEP, the European Parliament's Chief Negotiator, after an agreement was struck with the Council on the new rules on Electricity Market Design.

Three sticking points in the negotiations - state-regulated energy prices, cross-border interconnectors and capacity mechanisms - were resolved and have paved the way for the final deal.

“Our ambition is to get away from heavy state subsidies and instead let the market do the job of supplying industries and households with affordable and secure energy inside the EU”, said Kariņš.

He underlined that a more market-based approach will help create a level playing field for all market participants and thus provide investors in the electricity market with a much-needed assurance to make long-term investments in the market.

On the issues of capacity mechanisms - another word for subsidies - often based on coal, important steps in the right direction have been made to limit their use in the future.

“It will help the transformation to cleaner electricity production and it will open up more competition in electricity across the EU border - good for the climate and good for the wallet”, Krišjānis Kariņš concluded.