European energy ministers have still not reached an agreement on a cap on wholesale gas prices. This became clear after a new meeting in Brussels. There is still debate about the level of the ceiling.
“I had hoped to open the champagne to celebrate an agreement, but we have to keep the bottle cool for a while. We will be back on Monday,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela summed up the deliberation. However, he insists that “everything can be resolved within a few days”.
Skeptical
In Brussels, the energy ministers discussed the so-called market correction mechanism that should cap high price peaks. The intention is that the price cap will automatically come into effect when the gas price on the main European exchange (TTF) exceeds a certain level during a certain period.
However, there is still no consensus on the ceiling. Skeptical member states such as the Netherlands and Germany fear that gas suppliers will ignore Europe if the ceiling is too low. Proponents such as Belgium, Italy, Greece and Poland fear that the mechanism will become useless if the ceiling is too high.
275 euros per megawatt hour
That group strongly criticized the Commission’s proposal. The limit for a price ceiling – 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks – was set remarkably high. The mechanism would also only come into effect if the difference with the reference price for LNG on the world market would amount to EUR 58 or more. In this capacity, the system had not come into operation even during the August peak period.
The Czech EU presidency now circulated a proposal with a threshold of 200 to 220 euros per megawatt hour for three to five days, but the ministers could not knock. But according to Sikela, the atmosphere was “very positive” and he noted that there is already agreement on a number of elements. For example, contracts ‘over the counter’ would certainly be excluded from the mechanism.
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