Europe was afraid of a ceiling on gas prices from Russia

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Vzglyad business newspaper on the European Commission’s proposal to introduce cap prices for Russian gas.

“To implement this idea, and even on the eve of the autumn heating season, means a huge risk for the European Union. Thanks to the filling of underground storage facilities and a sharp reduction in gas consumption, Europe will hardly be able to get through the heating season. But if such an initiative is implemented, then the EU may get a real physical shortage of gas, there will be an even greater imbalance in the energy market,” the expert notes.

In his opinion, as long as decisions are made unanimously in the EU, this initiative has no chance of being adopted this year, because there will definitely not be unity on this issue among European countries. “In my opinion, it is not in the interests of the European Union to escalate the situation around Russian gas supplies, which have already declined sharply,” Gromov said.

Why did the European Commission trumpet this idea, knowing full well that its implementation is dangerous for European economies?

“Throwing this idea was made in order to test the positions of the EU countries to this proposal, to test the ground for the future. Now most of the EU members reject this idea in the bud, but it cannot be ruled out that the situation will change next year. Firstly, the seed has been sown, and the implementation of the idea will be worked out in the depths of the EC. Secondly, next year the order of decision-making by EU members may change, when it will be enough to get a majority of votes, and not all. Thirdly, the European Union will have time to work individually with each country that today has unequivocally spoken out against the introduction of a ceiling on prices for Russian gas in order to convince them,” the industry expert argues.