EU leaders to discuss energy crisis measures

October 18, Brussels: EU leaders this week will attempt to overcome divisions on how to face Europe’s energy crisis and end weeks of feuding over a gas price cap, a draft of the summit conclusions said on Monday.

The bloc’s 27 member states are deeply split on how to address skyrocketing energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which have seen heating bills explode in Europe just ahead of winter.

Several meetings of EU energy ministers have failed to break the deadlock and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will propose a fresh set of options on Tuesday in a renewed effort to bridge differences.

These will be taken up by leaders during a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday in hopes of achieving a better result than a summit earlier this month in Prague that ended in a stalemate.

A large group of EU countries, led by Italy, have pushed hard for some form of a price cap on gas imports and vented frustration against Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, for a 200-billion-euro plan to help Germans meet the high prices.

“The prices are insane: we agree on the diagnosis, but are still discussing the therapy to be administered,” Italian Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani said last week.

According to the draft of summit conclusions seen by AFP, the commission’s plans will include a vaguely worded proposal to “explore a temporary EU framework” to cap the price of gas used in electricity generation.