‘Europe will prevail in the war in Ukraine’
■Leo hints at move to limit energy prices... But he has no idea how it would actually work
EUROPEAN Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has vowed that “Putin will fail and Europe will prevail” in the war in Ukraine.
Ms von der Leyen was speaking during her EU annual State of the Nation address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Passionate
The Commission President delivered a passionate speech to the packed parliament where she gave Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the EU’s 100 per cent backing again.
Ms von der Leyen said that the EU has already given an estimated €50billion in military support and €19billion in other aid
THE Tanaiste yesterday revealed the Government may introduce energy price caps — but admitted he has no idea how they would work.
Leo Varadkar said “nothing is off the table” when he was asked if a choice would be made between rebates and price caps.
He said: “All options are on the table, a cap, extra credits like we did earlier in the year, or a combination of the two.
“We [the Cabinet budget committee] agreed last night that we would commission a paper to study the issue of price caps, how they might work and the pros and cons.
Bills
“They announced the price cap in the United Kingdom for businesses, but they just confirmed today that they don’t know how they’re going to do it.
“We’d rather do it the other way round and work out how you’re going to do things before you decide whether or not to do them.”
Any potential price cap here could result in bill savings of thousands of euro.
Current annual energy prices for households have already hit €2,000 a year, with estimates bills could top €6,000 a year before the crisis is over.
It is accepted across Government circles that another energy rebate in the form of credit on bills will be introduced before Christmas to follow the one for €200 per household last April.
There will also likely be another rebate worth several hundred euro in the first quarter of next year.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin all but confirmed this when he told the Dail on its first day back yesterday that “more relief ” will be with households “before the end of March”.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Eamon Ryan welcomed the latest news on proposed energy company windfall taxes.
EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen announced that Europe is moving ahead with their windfall plan which could yield €140bn across the bloc.
Mr Ryan said: “The proposal for a European-wide plan to capture excess profits from energy companies and to recycle them to householders and businesses will be taken into account in the upcoming budget, as one of the ways in which we can fund supports over this winter.”
The Minister added: “But Europe has to move on this quickly.
“The current electricity market is not working for people.
“This is one way we can begin to realign it.”