On Friday, at the Council of Energy Ministers in Brussels, Romania argued that not only the price of gas from Russia should be limited, as proposed by the European Commission, but also for all gas entering the EU. The same position was followed by Hungary, Russia’s long-time ally in the matter of sanctions, and 13 other countries from the EU bloc.

The European Commission is working on a set of measures to reduce high energy prices, these measures will be materialized in a legislative proposal. An emergency meeting of energy ministers last Friday aimed to agree on a common course of action for further steps.

But this long-awaited meeting, instead of ending with a common voice that would bring peace to people’s homes on the eve of winter, has given rise to even greater divisions in the EU, the subject of which is the limitation of gas prices.

A number of 15 states, including Romania and Hungary, did not agree with the European Commission’s proposal to limit the price of Russian gas only, but demanded the establishment of a limit on the entire volume of gas entering the EU, regardless of the source.

As for Romania’s position, it was made public in a press release issued by the Ministry of Energy on Friday afternoon.

“As far as short-term intervention measures are concerned, Romania supports a fair approach to all member states. Capping the price of natural gas at the EU level, including that imported from Russia, is supported by several member states, including Romania, and could significantly contribute to this.” to a decrease in the volatility of the European market. In this sense, Romania emphasized the importance of activating the European Energy Platform for the joint purchase of natural gas in order to ensure a fair distribution of additional volumes of gas and LNG brought to the EU,” the ministry said.

Why does the European Commission want to limit only the price of gas from Russia

The European Commission did not even propose to limit the price for all imports, but only for imports from Russia. Two days before the ministerial meeting, such an idea was voiced by the head of the community’s executive power, Ursula von der Leyen.

“We will propose a ceiling on the price of Russian natural gas. The goal is very clear. We must reduce Russian revenues that Putin is using to finance his terrible war in Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.

In response, Vladimir Putin threatened that such a measure would lead to the fact that Russia will cut gas supplies to EU countries, and Europe will freeze from the cold in winter.

Hungary, which is largely dependent on Russian gas and which at one time opposed the sanctions imposed by the EU, has shown that a ceiling on the price of Russian gas alone will create major problems in the market.

“This would be against the interests of Hungary and the EU,” said the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Sijarto, who was present at the meeting. “If we had imposed this sanction, Russia would have stopped gas supplies,” he added, as quoted by The Guardian.

The European Commission says everything is on the table for now

A total of 15 European states advocated a generalized ceiling for the entire volume of imported gas, the minister of ecological transition from Italy, Roberto Cingolani, said.

Among the countries that asked for a blanket cap despite the European Commission’s proposal were countries with a high degree of dependence on Russian gas, such as Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, as well as Western countries such as France and Belgium. Romania was also in this platoon, although the degree of dependence is one of the lowest in the EU.

Romania provides all its consumption with its own production and needs imports only in winter, at the peak of consumption.

The countries that were categorically against this idea and supported the European Commission were the Baltic countries.

Estonian Economy Minister Ria Sikkut asked her council colleagues to ignore Putin’s threats.

“This is blackmail. We must have the political will to help Ukraine win,” she said.

However, the European Commission does not abandon its proposal.

“A number of countries have asked us to consider possible price restrictions on the rest of the gas that the EU imports. Well, if the goal of our policy is to counter Russian manipulation of gas supplies to Europe, it makes sense to focus on Russian gas. But for now everything is on the table. The overall price of gas, including liquefied gas, could mean a supply risk,” said European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson at the end of the meeting.

What does gas price cap mean?

A price limit means setting a price above which no contract is concluded.

The European Commission’s plan was to impose sanctions on Russia in this way, which could no longer use the weapon of raising gas prices in the dead of winter.

On the other hand, the states that were against this measure were afraid that the restriction of Russian gas would lead to an increase in the price of gas from other sources (Norway, Qatar, the USA), which would further burden already huge consumer bills.

What did the energy ministers agree on in Brussels?

Finally, energy ministers agreed to wait for a draft proposal from the European Commission that would include a tax on producers of energy from sources other than gas. Instead, they did not reach an agreement on the gas price ceiling, writes Reuters.

At the same time, the press release of the Ministry of Energy of Romania states that “measures proposed by Romania and other member states to temporarily limit the price of natural gas, including imported gas, limit the impact of the price of natural gas on the price of electricity, limit the income of infrastructure producers, marginal electricity, protection of companies affected by the crisis were reflected in the conclusions of the Council published by the Czech Presidency.

While quick decisions are needed as winter knocks on the door, a new meeting of energy ministers could be held later this month to discuss and approve a final plan.

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