Price cap for everyone
Brussels ‘faces opposition to only limiting the price of Russian gas’ informs British newspaper Financial Times. According to the publication, at least 10 EU countries favor gas price caps for all suppliers. They are simply afraid that imposing restrictions on Russia “could make Moscow angry”.
The authors of the material, citing sources, said that among these countries are Greece, Italy and Poland. According to the newspaper, only imposing a cap on the cost of Russian gas would require approval by all 27 member states of the bloc, and a qualified majority would be sufficient to accept a general limit. At the same time, Hungary, Austria and the Netherlands oppose any restrictions.
“To be honest, Russia is likely to retaliate,” Nikos Tzaphos, chief energy adviser to Greek Prime Minister Kyrakos Mitsotakis, said in the article.
In response, Roberto Cingolani, Italian Minister of Ecological Modernization and Transformation, also spoke in favor of general restrictions. He asked for a “reasonable price”. An EU official speaking on condition of anonymity told editors that “everyone fears a domino effect” if supplies are cut off because the bloc countries are close to each other.
“If you limit prices only for Russian gas, this will not affect other suppliers in any way and Russia will be angry. For example, what will Portugal say to the electorate, which does not import Russian gas? he took note.
Proponents of limiting the cost of all gas are proposing to set prices higher than current prices in Asia and the United States so that international suppliers have an incentive to supply blue fuel to Europe.
“The Giant Problem”
On September 7, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her decision to propose a ceiling price for Russian gas to the European Union Energy Council at a press conference in Brussels. He emphasized that the implementation of this measure can happen very quickly after agreement with the countries of the community. According to the Politico newspaper, the EC wants to set the price of Russian gas in the European Union at €50 per megawatt hour, or around €520 per thousand cubic meters of gas.
In addition, EU energy ministers are expected to consider a proposal at an informal meeting in Brussels on Friday that all EU countries should reduce electricity consumption by an additional 10% and 5% during peak hours and limit the price of electricity. 200 € per megawatt -hour for all production types except gas.
Yesterday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo warned In an interview with Bloomberg, he said the EU economy was in danger of “total halt” due to the energy crisis. He is confident in his promise that “Europe must act now”.
“A few weeks like this and the European economy will stall. It will be much more difficult to get rid of this, to intervene in the gas markets than it is today. The risk of this lies in the risk of deindustrialization and serious social unrest.
He also called for the urgent introduction of “a broad price cap on gas trade within the bloc”. According to him, only this will help “save the industry without stopping.”
“Frankly, I see no other option but to intervene in the market. We will not have a second chance to prove to the 450 million Europeans that we take matters into our own hands. “What you’re seeing today is a tremendous welfare exit from the European Union,” he said.
He said gas trade is 10 times the five-year average and European governments have only one chance to show they can protect people and industry. At the same time, de Croo is convinced that the decision should be “immediate and not delayed for several months.”
“I’m afraid it will be too late in two months at these prices,” said the Belgian prime minister.
He also supported the idea of ​​”imposing broad price restrictions on all gas markets, not just Russian imports,” because Vladimir Putin has already said he will stop selling gas. Saying the restriction should be temporary and “dynamic,” the official is offering a premium on Asian prices, which is only half the price currently paid by European buyers. De Croo added that this will give time to consider how to restructure the electricity pricing mechanism in the future.
The Prime Minister concluded that Belgium will be “all right” in terms of gas and electricity supply security this winter, but that if any European country falls into a state of power outage it will be “a big problem for everyone”.
Source: Gazeta
Jackson Ruhl is a tech and sci-fi expert, who writes for “Social Bites”. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of technology and science fiction.