According to reports from the official website of the European Union and Reuters, on March 11, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated in a speech at the European Parliament that the energy supply instability in the Gulf region has quickly affected prices around the world.
Von der Leyen introduced that since the recent Israel-United States-Iran conflict broke out, natural gas prices have risen by 50% and crude oil prices have increased by 27%. Converted into euros, European taxpayers have spent an additional 3 billion euros on fossil fuel imports over the past 10 days.
She said that the EU is considering measures to curb energy prices, including setting a cap on natural gas prices.
Von der Leyen said: "Given that natural gas prices determine electricity prices, we must reduce the impact of these costs."
"We are developing multiple plans: making full use of power purchase agreements and price difference contracts, introducing state aid measures, and studying subsidies or price caps for natural gas prices."
The EU had introduced a gas price cap mechanism after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022. At that time, gas prices reached record highs, and some companies were forced to shut down. The mechanism set a trigger line at 180 euros per megawatt hour for European gas prices. This cap was never triggered and expired last year.
Germany, the Netherlands and other countries opposed this price cap policy at the time, arguing that it would weaken Europe's ability to secure fuel supplies during the crisis, especially when Asian buyers were willing to pay higher prices to compete for liquefied natural gas shipments.
Since the outbreak of this conflict, some LNG ships originally bound for Europe have been redirected to Asia.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/7616251052249104942/
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