The European Commission has presented its ideas for a gas price cap amid pressure from many member states but warned of the possible consequences.
The commission said the key objective for the EU is to ensure lower prices for EU consumers this winter.
Fifteen EU countries had sent a letter to the commission earlier this week, calling for a price cap for all gas imports and transactions within the bloc.
In its paper, the commission only partly addresses these calls and suggests setting a maximum price for Russian gas.
Another option laid out in the proposal would be to cap the price of gas used to generate electricity as opposed to gas for heating or industrial production to bring down power prices.
Spain and Portugal have already introduced similar measures.
The commission however warned against possible negative consequences of a gas price cap.
It said there is a risk of increasing demand instead of addressing the underlying shortage.
“To cap the gas price for transactions within the bloc, a new centralised system would have to be created to replace the market and ration and allocate gas, which would be “without precedent.”
The commission has previously proposed measures to alleviate consumers which do not interfere with the price mechanism in place, like windfall levies.
EU energy ministers are to meet in Brussels on Friday to potentially approve these levies and discuss different ideas for gas price caps. (dpa/NAN)
