MNI BRIEF: EU Ambassadors Aim For Gas Cap Landing Zone

EU ambassadors will meet Monday evening as they push for landing zone for a political deal on a gas price cap, a senior EU official said. The official noted that three to four major issues still need to be resolved before a deal could be reached: on the price level itself for the cap; the number of days at that level which would be required to activate it; when the automatic deactivation can be triggered and the scope of the mechanism.

Those countries opposed to a cap, including Germany, may accept a lower number in return for easier conditions for its deactivation “should things go badly wrong,” the official added. Energy ministers will meet Tuesday to discuss the latest compromise proposal from the ambassadors’ meeting, when any failure to find agreement would then hand the issue to leaders to resolve at their summit this week.

The cap is part of a package of energy measures to be agreed by ministers, which also includes an EU joint purchase platform, an emergency gas supply solidarity mechanism and faster permitting of renewable projects. The official said that EU states were moving towards a rapprochement, but only “very reluctantly”.