© AP Photo/Olivier MatthysFILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.
"We have a double challenge: to lower prices compared to today and empower ourselves to provide a mechanism to prepare for next winter. It [the next winter] will not be easier than this one, on the contrary - we take into consideration that we will have to do without Russian gas at all. So, we must bring down the price as soon as possible and at the same time be able to get through the winter of 2023-2024," he said.
In this regard, according to Macron, the summit participants agreed on the need to establish a new European price index for gas.
Macron said he is convinced that the current index on Europe's largest gas exchange (Title Transfer Facility, TTF virtual hub) "does not correspond to the reality of the current gas market" and is too susceptible to the actions of traders.
"We supported the proposal of the European Commission to create a new price index, which will allow us to have a real-time indicator that is more honest than the TTF index," he said.
Comment: When the establishment puppets promote something as honest, we can be sure that whatever it is that they're promoting confers control and benefit to them, and, in this instance, it might be a price index that's they can easily rig, or that's fixed in their favor. As they tried, and failed, to do with oil prices.
"This is the first point. The second point is the creation of a series of price corridors to avoid market volatility," he added.
Earlier, the European Commission presented a new package of measures to combat the energy crisis in the European Union. In particular, it proposed to introduce dynamic gas pricing on the European TTF Exchange. This measure is expected to be temporary until the EC develops a new LNG price benchmark by March 2023.
The EC also plans to introduce mandatory joint purchases of gas by EU member states at a level of 15% of the total demand, as well as the reduction of monthly energy consumption by 15%.
Comment: Anyone could predict that next winter will be dire, but still, Macron seems to be getting ahead of himself, because this winter hasn't even begun yet and already France is threatening citizens it will shut off their 'smart' heating remotely, and in response a protest movement is building, meanwhile over in the UK they're preparing for rolling blackouts of up to 48 hours: France's Macron to impose 2023 budget without parliamentary vote amid strikes and growing protests