A large majority of States ask to confront the “selfishness” of some countries and approve measures “urgently”
The European unit ended up converted this Thursday in a twenty-five against two. The negotiations to put a cap on the price of gas throughout the European Union (EU) pitted Germany and the Netherlands – who refuse such a measure – against the vast majority of the bloc, which calls for limiting gas “urgently” .
European leaders anticipated that it would be a long discussion that would continue into the wee hours of the morning. And they were not wrong. Upon their entry, the community leaders appealed for unity. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, insisted that “an agreement is possible” in the face of the European energy market that “does not function normally”.
For weeks now, a bloc of fifteen countries has been pressuring Brussels to put a cap on all gas imported to the continent. The refusal of Germany and the Netherlands, however, is holding back any measure to cap the price of this energy.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, referred to this division between partners, assuring that he hoped that the mechanisms that had a “broad consensus” could reach “unanimity” during the meeting.
Already at the informal summit in Prague two weeks ago, several leaders referred to German “selfishness” after Berlin’s announcement of a 200 billion shield to protect its citizens and businesses. This Thursday, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, pointed out that there are still many open questions about the mechanisms to stop the gas. “The debate is how do we get prices down while still having enough supplies,” he slipped.
The lack of gas is of particular concern to the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, as they have more difficulty finding alternative supply routes. For this reason, Scholz defended this Thursday that a European cap on gas must be coordinated with “other gas consumers, for example Japan and South Korea, so that we do not compete with each other.”
“We were late”
At the other extreme were countries like Spain, which recognized that the package of measures proposed by Brussels “falls short”. “We arrived late,” acknowledged Pedro Sánchez. The Lithuanian leader, Gitanas Nauseda, for his part, did not rule out reaching an agreement on a gas limit: “Sometimes these commitments are achieved at the last minute,” he stressed.
On the table were also the rest of the emergency proposals from Brussels, among which is the obligation for European countries to fill at least 15% of their gas reserves through joint purchases. It is “absolutely necessary to mutualise demand”, defended several days ago the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, who wants to use the weight that the bloc has in the market to curb energy costs.
European leaders also discussed the creation of a mechanism to correct the excessive volatility of the gas market. And, in the long term, the EU plans to develop a new benchmark to set the cost of gas as an alternative to the Dutch TTF, which is currently driving up prices. With Europe’s reserves almost full, the cost of energy seems to have stabilized, but all member states fear rising costs in the spring, when the refueling season begins.
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