A group of EU member states plans to call on Brussels this week to start negotiations on imposing a price cap on Russian gas. They want to put pressure on the European Commission on this issue.
Reuters writes about this with reference to the draft document.
The interested countries plan to send an official letter to Brussels with a request to submit proposals for the introduction of such a restriction at the next meeting of the EU Council.
The European Union believes that about 10 countries will sign the letter, including Poland, Greece, Italy, Belgium and Malta.
However, there are states that are categorically against the introduction of price restrictions. The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark believe that the introduction of such a restriction will jeopardize the stability of gas supplies to the EU this winter.
- In September, Russian Gazprom announced the suspension of gas supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline, which is the main gas pipeline for supplies to the EU. Due to this, gas prices in the EU have increased significantly. Later, supplies were restored, but Russia already significantly reduced supplies to Europe, in particular, completely stopped doing it through Ukraine.
- Against this background, the European Union is developing a mechanism for limiting the price of Russian gas. So far, the European Commission is considering two options.
- Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) estimates that gas storage in Europe exceeded 80% at the end of August and currently stands at 86%.