As part of its efforts to address the energy issue, the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, is hurriedly putting together a number of possible proposals for restricting the price of natural gas, according to a Friday report by Bloomberg News.
The goal is to finish a proposal prior to the summit meeting of the leaders of the union in Brussels in just two weeks, according to a source familiar with the situation cited by Bloomberg.
Following the summit of European leaders in Prague, a broad consensus on solutions to the problem of rising energy prices emerged.
A number of EU nations have emphasised the urgency of taking action before each nation starts to act independently, endangering the solidarity of the bloc.
Due to the absence of consensus on gas price restrictions among the leaders of the bloc, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated on Friday that she would use a letter she issued to leaders before the conference as a roadmap for recommendations.
Options include negotiating “reasonable rates” with reliable providers, lowering prices overall in the market, and minimising the effect of gas on electricity prices.
It took seven months for von der Leyen’s idea of gas price caps to be hotly debated. The specifics of how a radical emergency might happen are still unclear, but von der Leyen promised that those proposals would be worked out in the upcoming weeks. Von der Leyen first proposed the idea of gas price caps in March.
It is important to note that the implementation of a price cap has been delayed in part due to worries that it will make it harder for Europe to attract LNG cargoes from Asia and the United States.
By the end of October, the European Union hopes to have a gas price cap in place.
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