After Russia’s cuts in gas supplies, the European Union is preparing a counter-offensive: a gas price cap (but only for Moscow). According to Republic reports, the figure would be between 80 and 90 euros per megawatt hour, up from 120 yesterday when the Amsterdam market closed (it was 19 euros a year ago). Everything is still being discussed, but the plan put forward by Prime Minister Mario Draghi stipulates that gas trading within the Union cannot take place at a price higher than 80-90 euros per megawatt hour. Selling gas bought at the prices currently being charged by Moscow would thus become a loss-making and therefore pointless business.
The application
The proposal is due to be discussed in the European Council on Thursday and then reach the Commission next week. The suspicion is that the Kremlin is manipulating the gas price in order to keep it artificially high, since the technical problems with the Nord Stream compressor occurred just when the price for a megawatt hour had fallen to 80 euros. And hence the choice, the choice of number: if this is the acceptable minimum for Moscow, it must become the maximum for the EU. The decision to set a price cap only for Russian gas and not for all imports, on the other hand, aims to maintain ties with other EU suppliers who, in several cases, like Algeria, are making extraordinary efforts not to quit the union dry.
Draghi convinced Macron and Scholz on the way to Kyiv
The idea, supported by Draghi for some time, has been circulating in EU circles for weeks, but several countries are skeptical. As Adnkronos reports, it would have been the Italian prime minister who, on the train to Kyiv, would have persuaded French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to join him. The partial supply cuts for Germany and the total cuts for France did the rest. With Paris, Berlin and Rome on the same line, Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands still have to be convinced.
Italy is ready
Meanwhile, Italy appears unwilling to upgrade the alert level from pre-alert to alert amid the risk that a similar operation could push prices even further up and affect inventory replenishment. , now at 54% . However, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, will convene a table with Eni, Snam and Enel tomorrow to understand how the three companies can buy even more gas. An influx of state incentives to compensate for costs cannot be ruled out. Finally, Corriere della Sera reports that Eni already has everything ready for the reopening of Italy’s six coal-fired power plants, including fuel, should anything go wrong.