No agreement yet on Gas Price Gap at Brussels Energy Council

No agreement has been reached on the EU proposal to introduce a Gas Price Gap following an Energy Council held in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday.

EU energy ministers discussed at length the introduction of a gas price cap for electricity following the spike in gas prices across Europe. The price at which the cap – referred to as ‘market corrective mechanism’ – would be triggered was the main point of concern that the member states could not agree on.

“While EU countries hoped to reach an agreement on a proposal to control the price of gas used for electricity generation, positions remain divergent, making it difficult to reach an agreement on all aspects of the regulation,” the energy ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said that while progress was being made on a number of issues, the value at which the presidency is proposing to trigger such a mechanism is still very high. Malta’s position is shared by another 14 member states.

“Having a trigger with a high value will not calm the markets but instead will signal to the markets to increase the price when we want to achieve exactly the opposite. Ultimately, we want to have a system that reduces the price of gas used for electricity,” Miriam Dalli said.

Following the lack of agreement during the extraordinary Energy Council, the EU energy ministers agreed to meet again and continue the discussions next week.