The European Union (EU) energy ministers failed on Thursday to reach an agreement on the price limit for gas purchases and will therefore have to meet again at an extraordinary meeting on December 13, on the eve of the summit that will also bring EU heads of state and government to Brussels from 14 to 16.
Despite the major differences that persist on this point, the ministers did reach political agreements on two other measures to contain energy prices, that of solidarity and the acceleration of permits for renewables, although they have agreed to adopt both together with a cap on gas prices.
The ministers have noted their differences regarding the ceiling of 275 euros per megawatt hour proposed by the European Commission for the meeting on Thursday, whose arrival countries like Spain and Poland have branded as a «joke», while Germany and the Netherlands have warned of the risks posed to supply.
Despite the progress made on the texts on solidarity and joint purchases and on the acceleration of renewable permits, on which an agreement on content has been reached, the extraordinary Energy Council will end without a consensus on the gas price cap expected to be reached in December so that it can be implemented on January 1, as the Commission intends.
The Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, the country holding the rotating presidency of the Council, Jozef Síkela, acknowledged at the press conference following the meeting that the discussion had been «extremely complicated» in view of the different views on how the correction mechanism proposed by the Commission works, but stressed that everyone is committed to working «hard» to reach an agreement.
«I do not expect that there will not be a consensus because there is too much at stake,» he said, in view of the new extraordinary meeting called for December 13, which will be the eleventh meeting of the energy ministers this year.
For her part, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, who defended the Commission’s proposal, outlined with the aim of addressing the concerns of Member States with disparate opinions and guaranteeing gas supplies for the winter, asked the ministers to take this into account when negotiating new parameters.
