By Gavin Jones and Belén Carreño

ROME (Reuters – Friday’s call by the European Union’s Southern countries for common energy policy in face of rising prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in a request from the bloc.

According to Mario Draghi (Italian Prime Minister), “We are determined to press the European Commission as well as the other members states to take decisive measures in a section that is crucial for our future.”

Following a meeting between the leaders of Spain Portugal Greece and Portugal Draghi stated that they had mainly focused on energy.

European energy prices are soaring after Russia invades its neighbour on Feb. 24, 2014. Draghi declared that everyone would benefit from a “common management of the market for energy”. This includes common purchasing and storage in the bloc of 27 countries.

Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, Portugal’s Antonio Costa, and Greece’s Kyriakos Beisotakis attended the Rome gathering personally.

They discussed plans to attend a regular EU Leaders Summit in Brussels, March 24-25. These include clawing back energy company excess profits and temporarily capping wholesale gas price.

RAISING EYEBROWS

Following being exempted from the high-profile diplomacy following Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Moscow describes it as a “special opera”, the southern European countries now seek to come together.

When Draghi wasn’t invited to join a video conference last week between U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron as well as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, and Draghi, eyebrows were raised.

Sanchez stated that Europe must address its energy vulnerabilities… it must provide a single solution and not 27 answers after the meeting.

He stated that the EU summit next week must determine whether energy measures can be implemented “the next morning”.

Costas and Mitsotakis both sent similar messages asking for an integrated approach to energy policy.

Spain and Italy look at joint energy projects. Madrid promotes the construction of an off-shore gas pipeline connecting the two countries. SNAM (Italian energy infrastructure company) assists Madrid.

Italy depends on imports to meet its 90% gas requirements. 40% of these imports are currently from Russia. Italy has held discussions with numerous countries in search of alternative supply sources, such as Qatar, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Qatar.

The government also plans to increase its domestic gas production, and like many EU countries, to boost renewable energy sources. However, Roberto Cingolani, Ecological Transition Minister, says that it will be at least three more years before Russian gas is fully replaced.

(additional reporting from Angeliki Koutantou. Renee Maltezou. Inti Landauro. Patricia Rua. Writing by Gavin Jones. Editing by Andrew Heavens.