EU Should Take Action Before Winter to Tackle High Gas Prices - Commissioner

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The European Union needs to take additional steps in order to resolve the issue of high gas prices before winter, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said.

"What we decided today at the TTE [Transport, Telecommunications and Energy] EnergyCouncil comes in a long list of measures we have already taken to address the energy crisis," Simson said on social media on Friday, adding "I agree with the ministers that we need to do more, in particular to address the issue of gas prices before the winter."

Earlier on Friday, EU energy ministers held an extraordinary meeting, agreeing on a series of measures to respond to high energy prices that should start to get implemented beginning in December. The measures include mandatory reductions in demand for electricity during certain peak hours, and caps on the revenues of companies that generate electricity from cheap sources such as renewables and nuclear energy.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger has criticized the new EU measures adopted on Friday. According to Slovak media reports, Heger said that Slovakia insists on compensation, such as the EU's agreement to allow the republic's authorities to use EU funds to help enterprises suffering from high energy prices.

Heger warned that electricity produced in Slovakia will not go to the countries that have purchased it if Bratislava’s concerns with regard to energy price issues are not addressed by the EU.

Earlier this month, the energy ministers of 15 EU countries, including Spain, sent a joint appeal to the European Commission, in which they advocated the introduction of a price cap for all gas imported into the EU, regardless of its origin.

Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge Teresa Ribera said on Friday, ahead of the EU extraordinary transport, telecommunications, and energy council, that the proposals to regulate gas prices put forward by the European Commission do not correspond to the real needs of the EU member states.

Meanwhile, France and Germany are promoting a concept of a joint European platform for gas purchases, which could help avoid competition between EU states and limit price hikes, a joint document obtained by Handeslblatt on Friday, says.

The authors of the document, which was drafted ahead of the extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers on Friday, also called for negotiations with major gas suppliers of the EU to find solutions to the current energy crisis.