As Deputy Minister Guibourgé-Czetwerty stressed during the talks, the ongoing energy price crisis is likely to continue well beyond the current winter season.

The remedies that the European Union will need to adopt in the short and medium term should not be limited to the proposals presented in the European Commission's October 2021 toolkit. The toolkit was a very good step towards finding solutions to the crises, but the European Union should look for additional and more far-reaching ideas, given the gravity and complexity of the situation

– he said.

Deputy Minister Guibourgé-Czetwertyński also indicated that Poland would like to put forward some ideas on energy issues and the ETS system for businesses.

Member States should be able to provide special measures for enterprises threatened by high electricity and gas prices, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. Temporary price control measures, the extension of the system of regulated energy tariffs to smaller enterprises and the introduction of direct support schemes to compensate for the increase in electricity, gas and heat prices, among others, are also worth considering

– he continued.

The district heating sector has been particularly affected by the sharp increase in ETS prices, which threatens the viability of many district heating companies that provide essential services to citizens; amendments to the General Block Exemption Regulation should be considered to raise the ceiling on public funding that allows support to be increased to the level of the ETS costs borne by a given facility

– he added.

As the Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment pointed out, the energy sector as a whole has been hit hard by the current crisis. He also noted that relaxation of state aid rules for energy infrastructure (including natural gas, e.g. LNG) should be considered to support projects that improve energy security and resilience of Member States or the EU as a whole.

Poland welcomes the Commission's commitment to assess Gazprom's role in the current gas crisis. Since the main driver of the current crisis is the dominant position of a single, unreliable supplier in the EU market, the EU's gas supply diversification policy instruments need to be strengthened. In particular, we see LNG projects as key to lowering gas prices in the event of market price spikes such as we saw in December 2021, as well as increasing the resilience of the EU and its Member States to supply disruptions

– he pointed out.

The Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment also emphasized that the prices of emission allowances have a large impact on energy prices in Poland. The very high price of emissions limits companies' resources for investment and creates a significant burden on citizens.

The emissions trading scheme requires an additional regulatory framework that should not allow unlimited speculative trading and should be effectively protected from such actors as financial institutions. The role of financial institutions in the market should be reduced and the EU ETS should be more flexible and responsive to price spikes

– he summed up.