EU Commission proposes mandatory 5% cut in energy consumption during peak hours

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a mandatory 5% reduction in electricity consumption during peak hours to ease the bloc’s dependence on Russian gas.

“We're still confronted with a profound mismatch between supply and demand on the energy markets,” Frans Timmermans, the EU Commission’s executive vice president in charge of green transition, told reporters at a news conference.

Timmermans revealed the details of the European Commission’s proposals on reforming the bloc’s energy market that Ursula von der Leyen, the EU institution’s president, has already outlined earlier on Wednesday in her “State of the European Union” speech.