- Jetten has been called upon by two coalition parties to offer full compensation to councils that cancelled their contracts with former Russian gas supplier Gazprom.
- Around 150 customers of Gazprom Energy had already switched suppliers in response to Jetten’s original deadline at much higher energy prices.
The Energy Minister, Rob Jetten, has been called upon by two coalition parties to offer total compensation to councils that cancelled their contracts with former Russian gas supplier Gazprom. Jetten ordered some 300 municipalities in Holland including schools and water boards whose gas was provided by Gazprom Energy, to switch to another supplier before the end of the year. The minister reversed his decision last week after Germany nationalised its Gazprom subsidiary and renamed it Sefe Energy Ltd (‘Saving Energy For Europe’) in August to stop the company from bankrupting and severing its financial ties with Russia.
Around 150 customers of Gazprom Energy, a subsidiary of Sefe, had already switched suppliers in response to Jetten’s original deadline at much higher energy prices. The Christian Democrat (CDA) and ChristenUnie (CU) parties say the government should refund those users. CU MP Pieter Grinwis said Jetten’s decision was an “error of judgment since other European countries concluded much earlier that buying gas from Sefe would not breach sanctions against Russia”.
He noted that Utrecht city council’s energy bill has gone up by €11 million a year after switching from Gazprom, while on a smaller scale Sliedrecht, in Zuid-Holland province, with a population of around 25,000, is paying an extra €1 million next year culminating to a total of 40 euros per resident. Grinwis said, “It’s a serious amount of money. If you’re not careful, it will come at the expense of services such as the swimming pool and community centres”.