(Finance) – After the political agreement reached by Energy Business Council on July 26th, it will come into force tomorrow on EU regulation for the reduction of gas consumption.
The finalization of the agreement, with the opposing vote of Hungary and Poland but with the quorum of the qualified majority largely reached, took place on Friday. Today the regulation, binding for all, was published in European Journal and from tomorrow it will be in effect.
The regulation, which has retroactive effect, refers to the period 1 August 2022 – 31 March 2023. In this period, the Member States are called to a voluntary 15% reduction in gas consumption.
This reduction becomes mandatory in the event that the EU Council decrees theenergy alert. 15% is the maximum limit of the requested reduction but at least a dozen countries, including Italy, will be able to take advantage of a series of derogations which, on average, reduce the mandatory cut by eight percentage points.
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