“Save Gas for a Safe Winter”: Glass for Europe’s reaction
The European Commission released today, 20 July 2022, a new legislative tool and a European Gas Demand Reduction Plan, to reduce gas use in Europe by 15% until next spring. The initiative includes measures and recommendations aiming at empowering the EU to resist to further gas supply cuts from Russia in the coming months and sets gas supply prioritization criteria for non-protected customers, such as industry, in case curtailment is needed..
Since the start of the crisis, Glass for Europe was active with a paper on the need for uninterrupted supply of energy to flat glass installations. As Secretary General of Glass Alliance Europe, Bertrand Cazes led the advocacy work for the whole glass industry, with the help of Iva Ganev. Thanks to all efforts, the European Commission does recognize the specificity of the glass industry, which needs continuous and stable energy to produce and safeguard industrial assets, as expressed by Commissioner Breton himself. Glass Alliance Europe welcomes the Communication “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” with the joint press release below.
Glass industry reacts to the EU gas demand reduction plan
Brussels 20 July 2022
The glass industry recognizes the gravity of the energy situation Europe is confronted with.
Faced with the looming crisis, Glass Alliance Europe supports the European Commission’s plan published today1to save energy as of now in order to avoid power cuts and to stave off economic chaos.
It is reassuring that the European Commission’s guidance on prioritization within industries for the supply of energy in case of curtailment, does recognize the utmost need to avoid lasting damage to Europe’s industrial assets. ‘The specificity of the glass manufacturing process, which cannot be interrupted without severe damages to installations, is enough to justify the priority supply of energy to the glass industry.’ declares Bertrand Cazes, Secretary General of Glass Alliance Europe.
Glass Alliance Europe welcomes that the European Commission highlights the need for glass products to continue delivering food and pharmaceuticals to Europeans. The plan also mentions how glass products are part of several critical value chains in buildings and defense and how glass applications in energy-savings and renewable energy generation are needed to help overcome the energy crisis.
Glass Alliance Europe calls on Member States to follow the EU guidance and its spirit when reviewing their national emergency plans to ensure the uninterruptability of the glass continuous manufacturing process2 and to prioritize critical cross-border supply chains to the extent possible.
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1 COM(2022) 360 final ‘Save gas for a safe winter’ and its annex.
2 The glass sector consumes approximately 4.5 bcm of gas annually, which corresponds to 4% of the total industrial
