Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called on Sunday for the EU to impose a cap on power prices and decouple electricity charges from the price of gas. The Austrian leader said failure to do so would let Russian President Vladimir Putin “determine the European electricity price.”
“We must finally stop the madness that is taking place in energy markets. And that can only happen through a European solution,” read a statement from Nehammer’s office. “Something has to happen at last. This market will not regulate itself in its current form. I call on all the EU 27 to stand together to stop this price explosion immediately.”
The EU relies on Russia to supply around 40% of its gas, and government-led efforts to stockpile this precious resource in preparation for winter and a potential supply cutoff have compelled companies to buy, rather than sell, and driven up prices. This distorted market is compounded by some EU countries refusing to purchase Russian gas in rubles, as Moscow has demanded, and EU sanctions on Russia impeding maintenance work along Russia-Europe gas lines.