EU countries displayed their differences on a proposal from the Commission on Thursday to cap the gas prices, which prevented them from adopting two emergency legislative proposals, however very useful in these times Galloping inflation and economic crisis.
by Virginie Malingre (Brussels, European office)
Definitely, the question of the cap of the price of gas poisoned the lives of Europeans. For the past year, and even more since the start of the war in Ukraine, the heads of state and government have spent hours talking about it, over their meetings. Commission services also lost a few nights there. And when, finally, the community executive makes a proposal, it arouses so much dissatisfaction that the twenty-seven take hostage other texts which would however be very useful in these times of galloping inflation and economic crisis.
During the Council of European Energy Ministers, Thursday, November 24, they decided not to adopt the two emergency legislative proposals – intended to enter into force in the green light of the twenty -seven – which were the agenda and which are however the subject of a compromise.
The first must accelerate the granting of permits in the renewable sector. The second provides that Europeans have a new gas price index, more representative of the reality of the market, that they buy gas together and that, if one of them came to miss it, it May be assured that its partners will send it to him.
“We will not reopen negotiations on these two texts,” said Jozef Sikela, the Minister of Czech industry, whose country occupies the rotating presidency of the European Union Council (EU). “The deal” is there, he continued, but it will be “sealed” when there is a “consensus” of the twenty-seven on the ceiling on gas prices. “We do not yet open the bottle of champagne, but we put it in the refrigerator,” he concluded.
compulsory filling
While energy prices have soared since February 24, these measures are among the tools that Europeans have identified to lower them, in the same way as the drop in gas consumption by 15 % to which They have already engaged, the negotiations they lead with Norway or the United States so as not to pay the high price the gas they buy, or even the compulsory filling of their gas reserves.
If Europeans consider them useful to influence inflation in a few months, a majority of them claim that they are accompanied by a device capable of making its effects faster. They see factories close rather than paying their energy bills, or even investing elsewhere, where energy is cheaper. In this context, about fifteen member states, including France, Italy, Poland, or even Belgium, claimed, in September, a cap in gas prices. Faced with the inertia of the commission, which is hostile there, some of them have, in recent days, threatened to block any advance on the other energy files.
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