Jacek Sasin: Increases in energy prices in Poland are “EU increases”. Experts see it differently

On Wednesday, January 12, the second reading of the bill on the extension of the list of persons entitled to regulated gas prices and the freezing of tariffs took place. Jacek Sasin said then that the recently observed increases in prices and bills “can be safely called EU increases”.

Jacek Sasin on energy price increases: There can be no consent to the deterioration of the living conditions of Poles

– We will take all steps in Brussels and Poland to protect Poles against the effects of the wrong policy offered by the European Commission. We will do everything to prevent the Fit for 55 package from entering into force, the Minister of State Assets said. He also added that “there can be no consent to the deterioration of the living conditions of Poles”.

FiT for 55 is a regulatory package that provides, inter alia, reform of the EU CO2 emissions trading system (ETS) reducing the number of allowances available on the market, inclusion in the system of charges for emissions of transport and buildings, as well as an increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the European energy mix to 40%. According to “” practice, this means that Poland will be obliged to increase the pace of reducing ETS allowances by 4.2 percent. per year (so far there was a scenario of limitation to 2.2%), emissions in sectors not covered by the system will have to be reduced by 17%. (and not by 7 per cent), and it will also be necessary to develop renewable energy sources and power supplies in the electricity, heating and transport sectors faster.

As MP Sasin argued, the increase in energy prices is to be caused by policies, especially those related to the climate. The minister called it an experiment. He thought the assumptions were correct, but now “they have clearly degenerated.” – There is no other way for Poland today than protecting citizens from the effects of too fast energy transformation – Sasin continued.

– Poland will be the country that will suffer the most, this policy moves us back in development as a country. They want to reduce Central and Eastern Europe to the role of a reservoir of cheap labor and a market for their products – said Sasin. He also added that, in his opinion, the goal of EU policy is to divide Europe. In this way, the allegedly European Commission will “find it easier to govern”.

Jacek Sasin also stated that over 60 percent. the value of the electricity bill is the EU fees. – Only one third is the price of energy generated by Polish energy companies. This is a result of the too fast pace of transformation being imposed by the Brussels bureaucracy, said the politician.

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Electricity price increases – what affects high bills?

However, as experts note, such argumentation may be wrong. According to the data, from the second half of 2019 to the second half of 2020, the average electricity prices in the European Union dropped – while in Poland they went up significantly. Although the Polish government blames the increase in electricity prices on the “expensive climate policy of the European Union”, there are other factors that influence high electricity prices:

• Increase in fossil fuel prices in the world, caused by an increase in demand for economies that are trying to accelerate after.
• Weather – hurricanes, e.g. in the USA, destroyed the infrastructure that was used by the gas industry, so they had to search for this raw material on external markets.
• Energy exchange prices increased from April 2020 to September 2021 by as much as 310 percent.
• Russia’s actionswhose decisions had a large impact on the energy market in Poland – this country, among others restricted gas transmission to Europe in the winter.
• In Poland it is also important increasing the price of CO2 emission limits. “So that countries or industries heavily dependent on coal would not go bankrupt, a package of rights was created to emit a specific amount of CO2 for free. Only the government, instead of giving free limits to industries that need them, sold them. The free limit was sold, so we pay for the CO2 emitted. The fluctuating oil and gas prices will return to their levels sooner or later. However, the prices of our coal-based electricity will continue to rise. It may be easier to say that all this is caused by global trends or the EU. only part of the truth and the European Union cannot be blamed for it “- we read on the portal benchmark.pl.