EU summit agrees on energy dispute

The EU heads of state and government have agreed to work on a price cap against extremely high gas prices. "We will introduce a market correction mechanism to limit episodes of excessive gas prices," said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday night after around ten hours of negotiations at the EU summit in Brussels. Your authority will work with the ministers of the EU countries on a legislative proposal.

The final declaration of the summit specifically mentions a "temporary dynamic price corridor" for trading in gas. However, this should not jeopardize the security of supply. In addition, a cost-benefit analysis is to be carried out for a price cap for gas used to generate electricity. The maximum price should not lead to an increase in gas consumption. In addition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his colleagues supported in principle the EU Commission's latest legislative proposal to create the possibility of joint gas purchases.

In principle, more than half of the EU countries support a European gas price cap. However, there are different concepts of how the price should be limited. States such as Germany and the Netherlands had rejected a gas price cap, arguing, among other things, that this could jeopardize security of supply.

"I think that's good progress," said Scholz in Brussels. In addition, the EU energy ministers are to examine in detail next Tuesday how price fluctuations through speculation on the gas market can be prevented. The goal is "that it is not impossible to get gas through arbitrarily set prices," the Chancellor continued.

"There are still many doubts" about the question of whether a European upper limit for gas prices is possible, such as in Spain and Portugal. Countries like Germany and Denmark spoke out against it.