STRASBOURG (dpa-AFX) – The European Commission will initially not submit a proposal for a gas price cap, as some countries such as Belgium had called for. EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson emphasized in the European Parliament on Tuesday that an upper limit on the purchase prices for Russian pipeline gas would combat the current manipulation of supply volumes and prices. However, more work is needed “to assess possible negative impacts on some Member States”. The EU Commission is also analyzing how an upper limit for all gas imports to Europe could work and what effects it would have, Simson said.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to present a law with concrete emergency measures against high electricity prices on Wednesday. Last week she had already outlined several options, including a price cap for Russian gas imports. However, countries like Hungary, which are still particularly dependent on Russian gas, have spoken out against it.
According to Simson, the proposed law should contain measures to skim off the excess profits of many electricity producers and gas and oil companies and to relieve consumers of the money. However, the Estonian did not give any details.
A draft law available to the German Press Agency provides that companies that produce electricity from cheaper sources than gas – such as sun, wind, nuclear power or coal – pay their proceeds to the state from 180 euros per megawatt hour. In addition, it is planned that oil and gas companies will pay a solidarity levy of 33 percent on profits for the current year that were 20 percent above the average for the past three years. The money will be used to fund relief.
According to Simson, part of the proposal is also a mandatory electricity saving target. The draft states that the states should reduce their consumption at peak times by at least 5 percent. Simson also said that measures are needed to secure the liquidity of energy suppliers – but there should first be an investigation into what is possible.
The concrete legislative proposal can still change until Wednesday. Following the presentation, EU countries still have to adopt it. A special meeting of energy ministers is planned for the end of the month./dub/DP/ngu