EC rejects appeal for gas price cap writes Reuters

The European Commission (EC) has said that it will be impossible to introduce a price cap on natural gas as requested by some member states, Reuters has reported, quoting diplomatic sources.

The EC was said to have told representatives of member states in Brussels that it would be impossible to create a gas price cap that would not affect long-term contracts or supply security, Reuters wrote on Tuesday.

Poland was in a group of 15 member states which urged the EU during a union summit on October 20-21 to task the EC with preparing a proposal of a temporary framework to cap gas prices in electricity generation and create a temporary natural gas transaction price corridor to bring down costs for consumers.

According to sources quoted by Reuters, the European Commission decided it was impossible to meet these demands.

Given the role of the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in shaping energy prices, Poland also called on the EC to freeze the price of CO2 emission allowances at EUR 20 or EUR 30.