France and Germany want the European Union to set a “contribution” to be paid by operators in the energy sector that generate profits significantly higher than production costs, and which will later be distributed among member states, the EFE news agency reported on Monday, as quoted. from Agerpres.

French President Emmanuel Macron defended “European solidarity” on energy at a news conference on Monday, at the end of a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which the two leaders agreed on their position on intra-EU talks in the coming weeks.

Macron said he is in favor of reforming the European electricity market so that prices are set in a “coherent manner” and in line with production prices, not just based on the price of natural gas, which has risen five to six times during the current crisis times .

He also reported that France agrees to joint purchases of gas at the European level in order to obtain “more interesting” tariffs and to establish limits for Russian gas exported to Europe through gas pipelines.

He said that Paris and Berlin would support before other community partners a new tax on energy companies whose production costs are much lower than the prices they are currently getting on the market.

In his opinion, a European consensus would be good to “avoid distortions” within the framework of the single market, but if this is not possible, the debate on such taxation of exceptional profits will return to the national level.

France will give Germany gas, and Germany will supply France with electricity

Macron and Scholz also set up a mechanism for bilateral coordination to tackle the energy crisis of the coming winter, starting with the observation that “Germany needs our gas and we need electricity produced throughout Europe and in particular in Germany,” as more than half of France’s nuclear power plants now closed

In particular, in the coming weeks, France will increase gas export capacity through a pipeline to Germany with a series of works that will be “ready for winter”.

At the same time, Germany has pledged to produce more electricity and supply France in case of consumption peaks, which could be problematic in the context of the current closure of nuclear plants (31 of 56 in the French nuclear park), which normally produce 70% of France’s energy, a shutdown that now forces import it from neighboring countries.

Domestically, Macron reiterated the message that all French should make an effort to save 10% of energy to avoid the risk of blackouts or rationalize supply in winter, and asked, above all, as hot as the temperature in should increase the number of air conditioning devices air, and when winter comes, the heating temperature should not exceed 19 degrees.

The French president emphasized that in the coming weeks it will be assessed whether the population voluntarily applies these austerity measures, because otherwise there is a possibility of imposing obligations.

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