EU officials have indicated their intention to seek a price cap on Russian gas alongside other measures to curb negative fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine, despite criticism of such a move from inside the EU’s Czech presidency and a Russian threat to halt supplies.
Czech Industry Minister, Jozef Sikela
EU officials have indicated their intention to seek a price cap on Russian gas alongside other measures to curb negative fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine, despite criticism of such a move from inside the EU’s Czech presidency and a Russian threat to halt supplies.
The head of the EU’s executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, told reporters on that “we will propose a price cap on Russian gas” in addition to other steps. Other measures will include forced cuts in electricity usage during peak times and limits on the revenues of companies that produce power from non-gas sources, she said. “We must cut Russia’s revenues, which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war in Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.
But some EU countries are wary of a cap on Russian gas prices if it puts the dwindling supply they still receive from Moscow at risk. Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela told Czech senators earlier the same day that a cap on the price of Russian gas was not a solution for the current crisis and the bloc’s energy ministers should not discuss the option at a meeting this week. Sikela called a price cap a political tool and “an unconstructive proposal,” not a solution. “[A price cap] is more about another variant of sanctions against Russia than a current solution to the energy crisis in Europe. We don’t want to prepare more sanctions right now, but instead solve the energy situation,” he said.
The Czechs currently hold the EU’s rotating presidency. Czech officials have called a special meeting of the EU Energy Council as fears mount of debilitating fuel shortages this winter, brought on by international sanctions and Russian countermeasures resulting from Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February. The commission said the price cap would mean countries could keep buying Russian pipeline gas as long as the price did not exceed an agreed threshold.
The commission suggested setting the price cap above production costs and below current market prices to encourage Russia to keep on selling to Europe. Speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East, President Vladimir Putin called the notion of an EU price cap “stupid” and said Russia would stop supplying gas and oil to Europe if such a measure were implemented.
In addition to the EU, the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized powers have pledged to move urgently toward implementing a price cap on Russian oil imports in a bid to cut off a major source of funding for the war