Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning a Community procedure to improve the transparency of gas and electricity prices charged to industrial end-users

The Commission (Eurostat) collects data on natural gas and electricity prices for industrial end-users (final non-household customers). Industrial end-user prices have been regulated by legislation since 1990, and are currently regulated by Directive 2008/92/EC, which repealed Directive 90/377/EEC. National authorities collect price data for household customers on the basis of a voluntary agreement. The national authorities have informed the Commission that, owing to financial and human resource constraints, several data providers (natural gas and electricity companies) are questioning whether to continue collecting this data.

At the European Council on 22 May 2013 on energy and taxation, heads of state and government stated that the EU’s energy policy should aim to provide households and companies with affordable and competitively priced energy in a safe and sustainable manner. Consequently, the Commission was asked to provide analysis of the ‘composition and drivers of energy prices and costs in Member States’. This analysis was to focus on the impact of energy prices on households, small and medium-sized enterprises and energy-intensive industries, and, more broadly, examine the EU’s competitiveness in relation to its global economic counterparts.

The Commission, having identified that additional detailed pricing data were needed for this analysis, collected the required information from all 28 EU Member States on the basis of a voluntary arrangement. A report including detailed analysis of the components of natural gas and electricity prices was presented to the Council in January 2014.

In 2014, policymakers made several requests for more detailed official statistics on natural gas and electricity prices. At its meeting on 13 June 2014, the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council acknowledged the negative impact of high and rising energy prices and costs on Europe’s global competitiveness and on the standard of living of individual customers. For this reason, the TTE Council called for a ‘follow-up review by the Commission on energy prices and costs and on customers by 2016’.

The European Commission adopted on 25 February 2015 the Energy Union Package. One of the actions of the Energy Union Package under the chapter of the internal energy market defines an analysis of energy prices and costs to be carried out in 2016 and every 2 years thereafter. An additional set of sub-components on taxes and levies and network prices on natural gas and electricity has been drawn up in order to reflect the goals of the Energy Union Package and, in particular, addresses the need for greater transparency on energy costs and prices referred to in action point 8 of the Package.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)496: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:496:FIN

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