{"id":449200,"date":"2026-03-31T17:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/31\/lue-invita-i-paesi-membri-a-prepararsi-a-interruzioni-prolungate-sui-mercati-energetici\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:28:23","slug":"the-eu-is-urging-member-states-to-prepare-for-prolonged-disruptions-in-the-energy-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/31\/the-eu-is-urging-member-states-to-prepare-for-prolonged-disruptions-in-the-energy-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU is urging member states to “prepare for prolonged disruptions in the energy markets”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 European Union Member States are being urged \u201cto prepare in good time for a potentially prolonged disruption\u201d to energy supplies. The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan J\u00f8rgensen<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, writes this in a letter sent to all European Union energy ministers<\/strong> asking them to \u201cmake timely and coordinated preparations\u201d to ensure the supply of oil and refined petroleum products within the Union. The call is a direct consequence of the market volatility<\/strong> linked to the conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Commissioner, Member States are currently \u201cwell prepared\u201d thanks to the common obligation to maintain oil stocks and have contingency plans in place. \u201cThe European Union is facing this period from a position of relative preparedness, given the obligation for Member States to maintain oil stocks and have contingency plans in place in response to incidents that compromise security of supply,\u201d he explains. But he urges everyone to be prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo mitigate the immediate impact, members of the International Energy Agency (IEA, 32 members and 13 associates) <\/span><\/span>had already agreed<\/a> to release over 400 million barrels from emergency stocks<\/strong> onto the market, with EU Member States accounting for around 20 per cent of this contribution,\u201d J\u00f8rgensen notes in the letter. In addition to the release of strategic reserves, the Commissioner emphasises that voluntary demand reduction measures are a key response tool, calling on the AIE 10-Point Plan<\/a> to cut oil use<\/strong>. In light of the current situation, Member States are invited to \u201cconsider promoting demand reduction measures, in accordance with their own emergency plans, paying particular attention to the transport sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

J\u00f8rgensen also suggests making use of the \u201cGas Coordination Group<\/a><\/p>\n

together with the Energy Union \u2018Security\u2019 Task Force<\/a>\u201d to strengthen coordination<\/strong> and promote joint planning<\/strong> capable of \u201coptimising the balance between supply and demand in the long term.\u201d To avoid exacerbating supply difficulties, Member States should refrain from adopting measures that could \u201cincrease fuel consumption<\/strong>, restrict the free movement of petroleum products<\/strong> or discourage production by EU refineries<\/strong>.\u201d It is also recommended that dialogue with neighbouring countries and the European Commission be stepped up to \u201cpreserve consistency at EU level and the functioning of the internal market.\u201d<\/p>\n

To safeguard the availability of petroleum products on the European market, the Commissioner finally calls for \u201cpostponing any non-urgent maintenance work<\/strong> at refineries.\u201d At the same time, greater use of biofuels could \u201chelp replace fossil-based petroleum products and ease pressure on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a letter to all European Union energy ministers, Commissioner J\u00f8rgensen recommends refraining from “increasing fuel consumption, restricting the free movement of petroleum products or discouraging production at EU refineries”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":447639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30800],"tags":[25871,25815,33628,30592,33392,25806,33338,27569,27500,33629,33394],"class_list":["post-449200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-approvvigionamenti-energetici","tag-dan-jorgensen-and","tag-energia","tag-gas-and-2","tag-hormuz","tag-iran-in-2","tag-petroleum-en","tag-task-force-energia","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449201,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449200\/revisions\/449201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}