Austrian chancellor urges EU to ‘not allow’ Putin to set electricity prices

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for a “stop the frenzy” in the fuel markets and said the EU should find a unified solution to limit electricity tariffs due to rising energy prices. His words leads Reuters.

“We must finally stop the madness that is happening in the energy markets. And this can only happen thanks to a European solution,” Nehammer said.

According to him, the exchange price for electricity should be lower. In this regard, the Chancellor called on the EU countries to stop the “price explosion” by joint efforts. Nehammer also added that the gas price should not depend on Russia.

“We must not let Putin decide the price of electricity in Europe every day,” he said.

Last week, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers. The main topic of discussion will be the issue of resolving the energy crisis.

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Western sanctions imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia, which, among other things, affected the supply of energy resources. So, in early June, the EU introduced a partial embargo on Russian oil, and on August 10, an embargo on the purchase of coal from Russia began to operate. European countries are also looking for ways to abandon Russian gas.

Against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions and the reduction of energy supplies by Gazprom, the cost of gas in Europe began to grow. On August 22, the exchange price of gas exceeded $3,000 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first time since March 8. Two days later, the price of the September futures crossed the $3,100 mark, and on August 26, it crossed $3,500.

As part of the fight against the energy crisis and the prevention of possible difficulties with gas supply this winter, the EU countries decided to save energy and reduce their consumption by 7-15%. Under the plan, Germany, for example, called on households and companies to reduce gas consumption by 20%.

In addition, many German cities have already begun to turn off the illumination of public buildings and objects – this measure is also resorted to in Berlin, where they refused to illuminate 100 buildings. Also among the ways to save energy are turning off fountains, maintaining a certain temperature indoors, as well as turning off hot water in pools and showers in gyms.

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