Today, EU energy ministers are called upon to agree on a gas price cap. To achieve this, as far as we know, an attempt at compromise was put on the table, the umpteenth, with the mechanism that should trigger the price cap when the TTF reaches 188 euros per megawatt hour during a period of three days with a spread of 35 euros per megawatt hour compared to global LNG prices. Very different parameters compared to the initial proposal presented by the European Commission: 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks at the Amsterdam FTT with a spread of 58 euros against LNG.
The proposal, to meet skeptics – led by Austria, Germany and the Netherlands – also proposes other safeguards for the measure, including a request for the Commission to consider suspending the ceiling in the event of a “significant drop” in quarterly imports. of LNG hates a 15% increase in gas consumption in one month.
The maximum price is a measure that Italy has been asking for months, yesterday with Mario Draghi and today with Giorgia Meloni, to avoid next spring, a season in which winter stocks will have to be filled with “zero Russian gas”. unlike last spring, methane prices are once again out of control, as they were last August. French President Macron explained Thursday night that at the last extraordinary Council on December 13, ministers found “a 90% agreement” and that “the political conditions were determined so that the main axes of energy policy can be set in December 19th”. of which the price cap is an integral part.
Source: IL Tempo
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
