Romania and 11 other states, including Belgium, Italy, Poland and Slovenia, are pushing for a “significantly” lower cap on the price of natural gas at the EU level, given that the EU bloc cannot agree on the measure, Reuters reported, Agerpres reported.

EU member states are involved in emergency talks on Saturday in an attempt to reach an agreement on cap prices for natural gas at a meeting of European energy ministers on December 13, but countries remain divided over the plan.

Twelve of the EU’s 27 member states circulated a document seen by Reuters calling for the price ceiling to be “significantly” lower than the latest compromise reached by the bloc’s countries.

“The text did not go far enough in the direction of what we could consider a satisfactory compromise,” said the document supported by Romania, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

Disagreements between EU member states over the capping of natural gas prices have been going on for months, but a compromise between their differing opinions has not yet been reached.

Some diplomats are skeptical that a deal will be reached next week, arguing that states backing the latest proposal have enough power to block approval.

Most of the EU member states require the establishment of a concrete ceiling on the price of natural gas. On the other side of the table is a small group of EU member states, led by Germany and the Netherlands, which say the price cap will force suppliers to sell their gas elsewhere and remove incentives to cut gas consumption.

Last month, the European Commission proposed capping gas prices for a year when TTF gas hub prices exceed €275/MWh for two consecutive weeks and when TTF prices are €58 higher than the world average. of liquefied gas within 10 trading days.

The latest proposal, seen by Reuters, calls for a cap if prices exceed 220 euros/megawatt hour for five days on next month’s gas futures quotes from the TTF center in Amsterdam (where prices are set as Europe’s benchmark) and when prices are 35 euros higher than the average world price for liquefied gas.

This is lower than the €275/MWh cap proposed by the European Commission, but 12 EU member states say it is not low enough.

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