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Ministers agreed that the energy issue is urgent, but they decided nothing.
Gathered in Brussels for an extraordinary meeting, the 27 energy ministers said no to the 5 recipes of the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to deal with extraordinary measures on energy.
All decisions will be sent as new proposals to the prime ministers meeting in October. Von der Leyen’s mistake is that he attempted a coup by pronouncing very heavy measures at the last moment and not sufficiently studied by national governments and announcing them to the press even before the Sherpas could discuss among themselves. This was enough to curb von der Leyen’s ambitions. Tensions with Charles Michel, President of EU Concil.
- Reduction of gas consumption – Only voluntary and Ministers asked measures on electricity
- Price cap for gas – They asked to include electricity
- Helping Utilities in liquidity – Decision not ready
- Additional tax for fossil fuel giants (solidarity contribution) – No consensus
- Tax the extra profits of energy producers – Not at EU level
Observing the meeting debate and reading the conclusions, the EU appears divided on the measures proposed by Ursula von der Leyen. Many consider the meeting poorly prepared, lack of documents and misconduct by the European Commission which the day before had announced the proposals to the press.
The behavior of the ministers denounces a substantial nationalism even in the face of a serious emergency. Not only energetic, but also economic and social.
Everything is postponed to the EU summit until mid-October, but in the meantime many things can happen and countries will face emergency situations on their own.
At this point the European Central Bank could go ahead on its own by launching its new asset purchase programs , as announced yesterday by its President Lagarde if the fiscal situation were to plummet due to national subsidies for the energy crisis.
@ 2022, eEuropa
