The amount of 800 billion euros is now approaching the sum of the total costs of European countries to protect their economies from energy crisis.

The corresponding calculations belong Brueghel Institute for Economics and Researchwhich found that since September 2021 the EU countries they have spent a total of 681 billion euros to support households and businesses, and for the same reason those outside the EU on the one hand the UK and on the other hand Norway , allocated 103 billion euros and 8.1 billion euros, respectively.

Greece has spent 9.5 billion euros to protect its economy from the energy crisis, and this amount corresponds to 5.2% of Greek GDP.

It should be noted that back in November Brueghel estimated the same total amount at 706 billion euros, but this has obviously increased significantly since European countries still have significant funds to replace Russian gas and protect themselves more generally from the consequences caused by the cessation gas supply. your offer.

Differences in amounts across countries indicate large differences in the ability of countries to support households and businesses. By a wide margin from all other countries, of course, Germany is ahead, which has allocated an overwhelming amount of almost 270 billion euros to support the German economy. This is followed by the UK, Italy and France, each of which spent less than 150 billion euros, and the rest of the EU is only a fraction of this amount.

In terms of per capita spending, Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg again provided the largest amounts. The amount of spending to fight the energy crisis has now reached and exceeded the €750 billion Pandemic Fund agreed to in 2020, marking a milestone as it was the first issue of the EU’s total debt.

Natural gas tanks are now about 65% full and prices are down more than 80% from last August’s record high.

In the meantime, Old Epirus has managed to effectively gain ground thanks to high stockpiles, and natural gas prices have declined. Gas prices have fallen more than 80% from their record high in August last year. This means, however, that any sale of some of their high stocks will be accompanied by losses of several billion euros for energy-using industries and taxpayers.

Some of the fuel was bought with government money or with money from fees collected by the energy networks, which are, of course, funded by taxpayers. As Sidre Knutson, vice president of Rystad Energy, points out, “in the end, the consumer pays for everything.”

In a sense, Europe is paying the price for its success. It hastened to import large volumes of liquefied natural gas when Russia cut off its pipelines. However, a mild winter limited demand, thus alleviating the energy crisis.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, natural gas tanks are currently about 65% full, well above the norm for this time of year.

After all, it is considered possible that at the end of winter the occupancy will be higher than 50%, i.e. double the level of the corresponding period last year. However, according to market participants, these data are positive for Europe’s energy security, but create a dilemma for those companies or organizations that bought fuel when fuel prices skyrocketed. To protect themselves from large price fluctuations, companies could enter into contracts to buy and sell gas at predetermined prices.

Europeans have been saddled with the exorbitant cost of gas, with prices skyrocketing last summer when gas is not needed for heating and prices are usually much lower than in winter.

The total bill paid by the EU for gas imports reached a record 101 billion euros in the third quarter of last year, i.е. at a level more than three times compared to the levels of the corresponding period of 2021. And, of course, most of these fuel imports were stored for energy security reasons.

Toward the end of August, when the gas supply crisis peaked, prices in the Amsterdam market exceeded 300 euros per MWh. Today, futures contracts in the Dutch market, which is also the benchmark level for Europe, are barely above 50 euros per MWh and are approaching the levels they were at in September 2021.

A few days ago, Morgan Stanley predicted that prices would fall further and EU tanks would close the winter season at 59% full.