Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela announced on Tuesday, 13 September, that the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union convoked another emergency meeting of Member States’ energy ministers to discuss soaring energy prices.
This extraordinary ‘Energy’ Council will be held on 30 September; its purpose will be to discuss emergency measures proposed by the European Commission to combat rising energy prices with a view to adopting these measures.
Some of these measures will be presented tomorrow (Wednesday, 14 September) during President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address.
According to a provisional document from the institution (see EUROPE 13019/1), they are expected to take the form of a proposal for a Council regulation aiming to reduce electricity demand in a coordinated way across Member States, cap the revenues of certain electricity producers, and levy a solidarity contribution on super-profits in the fossil fuel sector.
However, this document does not discuss the idea of a gas price cap (either limited to Russian gas or generalized) or the possibility of designing emergency liquidity instruments—a sign that these two measures could be presented later.
While there was a broad consensus on the latter during the last meeting of energy ministers on Friday, 9 September, Member States are divided on the issue of capping gas prices (see EUROPE 13018/1). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)