European Commission to come up a proposed cap in time for crucial November 24 meeting
Four European Union (EU) countries are threatening to derail a package of measures designed to address the current energy crisis, including measures for joint buying of natural gas and speeding up permitting for renewable energy projects.
The four – Belgium, Greece, Italy and Poland – have threatened to block the entire package of energy-related measures designed to alleviate the energy crisis in 27 EU countries. They are demanding that a natural gas price cap plan must be included in the current list of detailed energy proposals.
This is just the latest in a series of arguments over the controversial natural gas price capping mechanism and the persistent delays, which could prevent energy ministers from approving a price cap at their crucial November 24 meeting, as is expected. Reuters reported earlier that the four countries are demanding a comprehensive proposal on the gas price cap from the European Commission before that meeting date.
Ultimatum given as battle lines drawn
If this is not done, the four EU states declared that they would not agree to the whole package of energy-related measures that will go up for approval on that date. Those measures being demanded by them include joint gas purchases by EU countries, and speeding up renewable energy project permitting.
The European Commission, in turn, responded by promising to come up with details for the gas price cap in time for the meeting. The European Commission, however, told countries on Monday that there was no way to create a gas price cap contrary to EU leader requests without affecting existing long-term contracts.
The European Commission proposed a “market correction mechanism” instead. Belgium, Greece, Italy, and Poland have been credited with the original idea of a natural gas price cap, although industry experts and analysts have raised questions as to the feasibility of such a price cap.
Oilprice.com reports that, “the European Commission was never on board with the price cap, although more than half of the EU member states supported the gas price cap idea”.
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