EU struggles over approach on energy prices

BRUSSELS — European Union nations struggled to find full consensus Friday on ways to shield the population from dramatically increasing energy prices that threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as Russia chokes off natural gas supplies.

As tensions with Moscow mount over the war in Ukraine, the energy ministers of the 27-nation bloc could not square differences on whether and how to impose a price cap on Russian natural gas, with ever-recalcitrant Hungary refusing to agree, saying it would go against its supply interests.

Other countries differed on whether a price cap should apply only to Russia or to other producers, too.

That “shows that this is a difficult issue and that the (European) Commission had a different goal,” said Agata Loskotstrachota, senior fellow for energy policy at the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.

While EU members are most interested in lowering prices and getting enough gas, “the commission aimed at limiting Russia’s revenues and, I think, taking back control of the situation on the European gas market,” Loskot-strachota added.

An immediate solution on all proposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordability had not been anticipated, but energy ministers gave general recommendations to the European Commission, the EU’S executive branch, on options like instituting windfall levies on some energy companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices.

Moscow’s gas restrictions and threat of a full cutoff has dominated the political agenda of a rich bloc of nations struggling to ensure that basic services like heat and light continue.

Despite the urgency, with several northern nations feeling the first chill in the morning air announcing the onset of autumn, the ministers gave only guidelines to the EU commission, which will present a proposal for the member states next week.

At that point, the EU nations will reassess again, and the hope is that a decision can be made by the end of this month.