European Council President Charles Michel said the European Commission can’t wait until Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech on September 14 to propose solutions to the cost of energy crisis.
“There is not a day to lose,” Michel said in an interview with several European media published on Saturday.
Michel said it was important for the EU to address the matter of price caps.
“That is not new; we do not start this debate today,” Michel was quoted as saying. “That is why we invited the Commission several times in the past to put concrete proposals on the table to help the member states decide.”
Von der Leyen, the Commission president, on Friday said she was “firmly convinced” of the need to cap the price of Russian gas exported via pipeline to the EU. “A gas price cap can be proposed at European level,” she said.
The Commission has laid out its thinking in a draft paper obtained by POLITICO. It calls for capping the price of power from sources other than gas and for the redistribution of funds from high-profit energy producers to soften the blow to consumers.
Energy ministers from across the bloc are scheduled to meet on September 9 for an emergency summit.