EU Energy Ministers Fail to Decide on Limiting Gas Prices, Hungarian Foreign Minister Says

BUDAPEST (Sputnik) - The EU energy ministers did not make any decision regarding the bloc's proposal to curb extreme gas price surges by introducing a cap at a meeting in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the EU's executive proposed the price ceiling. It wants the cap to kick in if the front-month price on the Dutch gas exchange TTF exceeds 275 euros for two weeks and if, at the same time, TTF prices are 58 euros higher than the liquefied natural gas global reference price for 10 consecutive trading days.

"Today, we started negotiations on the introduction of a cap on gas prices. I can say that these are bad proposals, which also threaten Europe's energy security. Today, at the meeting, no decision was made that would meet the objectives of the European Commission, because a significant part of the member states, including us, defended the point of view that it is impossible to take decisions on solidarity measures in the gas market without, in our opinion, erroneously interfering in the work of the gas market," Szijjarto told reporters, as broadcast on his social media.

The next meeting on the matter will take place on December 13, the minister added.

After the launch of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February, the EU and the US imposed economic sanctions against Moscow, which led to a large-scale energy crisis in Europe.