Gas prices, armaments projects, China deals: the German chancellor is making himself unpopular with his European partners in several areas. Biggest accusation: He is blocking the fight against the high gas prices.
Gas prices must come down, supplies must be secure: the Union’s heads of state and government set themselves these two goals for their European Council on Thursday and Friday. But even before the 27 bosses arrived in Brussels, it was clear that this summit meeting could at most issue new work orders to the European Commission and the energy ministers to come up with new concrete proposals for curbing the gas price crisis. The questions that need to be answered are too detailed, and the concern that a thoughtless joint final communiqué could stir up the energy markets even more than they already are is too great. The beginning of the Greek crisis around the turn of the year 2009/2010 is still remembered by many of those involved, when every statement by leading European politicians seemed to bring Greece’s impending national bankruptcy even closer.
Worry about less gas
Two months before Christmas it is therefore completely unclear whether and how the Union will bring gas and the electricity prices derived from them under control in the winter period. The Commission took action very late and the proposals it published on Tuesday still do not include a legislative proposal for the temporary corridor for gas prices that is to apply this winter before a new gas price index is to be drawn up in the spring, from which Brussels can draw up a more realistic one Expected to reflect the market situation (and lower prices). In its package of measures, the Commission once again moved away from a maximum price for gas used to generate electricity. The fact that a gas price cap appears again in the draft conclusions, which the 27 bosses brooded over late into the night, shows how much they misjudge the mood of the member states.