5 EU countries offer to investigate reasons for record jump in gas prices

Finance ministers of France, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic and Romania issued a joint statement asking the European Union to develop a toolkit to “immediately react to dramatic price surges.”

France, Spain and three other European countries have called on the EU to take urgent action to cushion the blow of skyrocketing gas prices - and investigate their cause, Qazet.az informs referring to Bloomberg.

Finance ministers of France, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic and Romania issued a joint statement asking the European Union to develop a toolkit to “immediately react to dramatic price surges.”

They called for an investigation into the gas market, said the bloc should coordinate purchases to “increase our bargaining power,” and urged an overhaul of power markets.

The five governments called for: a common EU approach and a toolkit to respond, an investigation to understand why current gas contracts have been insufficient, reform of the wholesale electricity market, energy independence; diversification, a more predictable carbon price and less volatility.

The crunch also poses a risk to European policy makers’ plans to push the bloc in the direction of cleaner energy, while countries are divided on one possible solution: bringing more gas from Russia.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, is set to publish next week a set of measures that national governments can take to ease the impact of high prices. It will offer guidance on how to design emergency responses to ensure they are in line with EU law and don’t undermine the world-leading shift to greener energy.

The gas price in Europe during the October 5 trading session again broke the record and for the first time exceeded $1,400 per 1,000 cubic meters.