The EU’s Emergency Intervention against High Energy Prices: Implications for the Visegrad Group Countries

Abstract

The energy market in the European Union has recently faced significant external influences, which have resulted in turbulent developments in wholesale energy markets. The extraordinary and sudden increase in electricity prices and the imminent risk of further increases required a joint solution by the Member States at the end of 2022. On 6 October 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation 2022/1854 on Emergency Intervention to Address High Energy Prices, which establishes an emergency intervention to mitigate the effects of high energy prices through exceptional, targeted and time-limited measures. In this paper, the authors focus on the legal framework adopted to introduce the mandatory cap on market revenues to electricity producers in the countries of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia).