On 24 November, EU energy ministers failed to agree a cap on gas prices to mitigate the energy crunch in Europe amid deep divisions over an initial proposal slammed by many as a "joke," AFP reported. The ministers will now meet in the first half of December, said Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela.
The Polish and Spanish energy ministers called the proposal a "joke.""It's absolutely unenforceable, inefficient and out of scope," Teresa Ribera, Spain's minister for the ecological transition, said on November 24 morning. "It's a bad joke."Her Maltese counterpart, Miriam Dalli, said the cap, as designed by the European Commission, was "not fit for purpose" and "definitely not dynamic in nature," according to Euronews.
"The proposed solution is unsatisfactory because it would not help to protect ourselves even against the peak we had in the past," Lithianian President Gitanas Nausėda said at a news conference in Vilnius.As long as a "workable proposal" for a European price cap is not on the table, Belgium will not sign any energy agreements, said the country's Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten at the start of the European Council of Energy Ministers.
According to Euronews, the proposed cap would be automatically activated but only if two key conditions are met:
- If TTF prices reach or surpass €275 per megawatt-hour for at least two weeks.
- If TTF prices are €58 higher than the market reference of liquefied natural gas (LNG) during at least 10 consecutive trading days.
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