European Commission will not propose a gas price cap for time being

The European Commission is not set to present a proposal for a gas price cap, despite demands by countries such as Belgium.
"While a gas price cap on Russian pipeline imports could further address the current manipulation of supplies and prices, more work is needed to assess the possible adverse impacts on some member states," EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson stressed in the European Parliament on Tuesday.
"And we are also deepening our analysis on how a horizontal cap on all gas imported in Europe could work and its implications," Simson said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to present a law on Wednesday with concrete emergency measures to fight high electricity prices.
She had already outlined several possibilities last week, including a price cap on Russian gas imports. However, countries like Hungary, which are still particularly dependent on Russian gas, have spoken out against this.
According to Simson, the proposed law should contain measures to skim off the excess profits of many electricity producers as well as gas and oil companies and provide relief to consumers with the money. However, the Estonian politician did not give details.
A draft law, which was made available to dpa, provides for companies that produce electricity from cheaper sources than gas - such as solar, wind, nuclear or coal - to pay their revenues to the state starting at €180 ($180) per megawatt hour.
In addition, it is planned that oil and gas companies will pay a solidarity levy of 33% on profits of the current year that are 20% above the average of the past three years. The money is to be used to help consumers.
Part of the proposal, according to Simson, is also a mandatory electricity savings target. The draft states that states should reduce their consumption by at least 5% during peak periods.
She also said that measures are needed to ensure the liquidity of energy suppliers, but here there will first be an investigation into what is possible.
The concrete legislative proposal can still change by Wednesday. Following the presentation, the EU countries still have to adopt it. A special meeting of the energy ministers is planned for the end of the month.