European Union (EU) leaders may back a plan to launch a new gas price cap at a meeting next week, while they are scrambling to curb energy prices for consumers and industries, according to a draft document.
The leaders would meet on October 21-22, days after the European Commission hopes to propose measures to rein in energy prices and cushion ailing economies across the globe.
Russia has significantly slashed pipeline gas deliveries to Europe since invading Ukraine at the end of February. The invasion prompted European countries to buy more LNG cargoes.
The document signaled towards a lack of consensus for a “temporary market intervention”- that could refer to a gas price cap. The 27 EU member states have been discussing a potential cap on prices.
EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said earlier this week that there was sufficient support for a price cap on gas. This is a move that countries like Romania and France have sought.
Germany also unveiled a package that was aimed at cushioning the impact of soaring energy prices that have skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While pieces of the crisis were already in place before the invasion, supply bottlenecks have been exacerbated by the war that has tightened supply and blocked multiple trade routes from Ukraine.
The document states that EU leaders are likely to endorse other measures which will be negotiated and could change before it is approved at next week’s meeting. This also includes EU countries tracing out their plans for filling of their gas storage ahead of next winter, and speeding up negotiations with non-Russian gas suppliers to try to lower prices.
The document also talked about the possibility of such negotiations to be done through countries jointly buying gas to harness their “collective political and market weight”.
