Bloomberg: twelve EU countries demand lower gas price cap

A group of 12 EU member states has demanded that a natural gas price cap, proposed earlier, be set lower, Bloomberg cites its sources among EU diplomats.

The move came four days before an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers, aimed at setting a gas price cap, scheduled on 13 September.

The countries that spoke out for a lower price cap are Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The coalition has enough votes to block an agreement if its demands are not met, Bloomberg says.

The European Commission proposed a natural gas price gap at €275 per megawatt-hour earlier if certain conditions are met. The so-called gas market correction mechanism would kick in when the price of month-ahead contracts on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (a virtual trading point for natural gas in the Netherlands) exceeded €275 per megawatt-hour and the gap between world prices was greater than €58.

Czechia, which holds the EU rotating presidency, proposed earlier this month that the price cap be lowered to €220, but the coalition of the 12 countries said this level was not acceptable and had to be lowered significantly.

The gas price cap issue has been discussed by the EU for months, Bloomberg says. The €220-275 proposal figures are significantly higher than the average price level (€140) but are lower than the peak figures recorded this summer.

The introduction of a gas price ceiling should help avoid further price hikes, which may be connected, among other things, with gas supplies from Russia.