As a measure to counter Russia's gas blackmail, Ursula von der Laen called for the introduction of a ceiling price on Russian gas supplied to Europe. According to Politico, France supported this initiative.
"If the Commission were to decide to implement a price cap on natural gas purchased via pipelines from Russia, France would support such a measure," Emmanuel Macron
"The proposed price ceiling on gas — €50 per mW-hour is floated, which is less than a 15 of the current spot price — would take the form of emergency legislation used earlier this year to pass gas rationing measures by qualified majority vote, or by creating a single European gas buyer to negotiate a specific volume of gas to purchase from Russia," Politico.
At the moment, Brussels is focused on developing tools to cut energy prices for the EU countries. On September 9, tentative measures to counteract price increases will be discussed ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers. Today it is known that some of the tools will be price limits, new markers for determining the price of energy carriers and measures for the distribution of gas between countries in an emergency.
"As a counter-offensive, we Europeans need to halt Russia's market manipulation. It's the same when you see the price of a share collapsing following bad news, you have to suspend trading. France has already made these proposals in the past, others have, and they will probably be at Friday's Council meeting," Lawrence Boone, secretary of state for European affairs in the French government.
Lawrence Boone said that there are no fears of intervention in the market due to the lack of liquidity in the gas market. Also, according to the secretary of state, the introduced measures will be temporary: set for half a year with the possibility of extension for another half a year.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on September 2 that the time has come to limit prices for Russian pipeline gas to Europe.
