EU faces awful winters without gas cap – minister

The energy minister of Belgium has issued a warning that if natural gas prices are not brought down, the EU will see five to ten brutal winters.

More people are calling for the price of gas to be capped across the EU and to be separated from the price of electricity.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, which led to sanctions, EU governments have struggled with sharp increases in energy prices.

Ukraine’s supporters are attempting to reduce their reliance on Russian oil and gas imports.

The EU received 40% of its gas from Russia last year, which has in turn limited supplies.

Tinne Van der Straeten, the energy minister for Belgium, stated on Twitter that the artificial relationship between gas and electricity costs needed to be fixed and that the continent’s gas prices immediately needed to be stabilised.

Karl Nehammer, the chancellor of Austria, said, “We have to put an end to this madness that is happening right now in the energy markets. He said that power costs must decrease and urged the EU to separate the costs of electricity and gas.

Even now, a lot of electricity is still produced from natural gas. This costs more now that gas prices have increased.

Significantly, this cost is applied when purchasing electricity in bulk, even though it comes from significantly less expensive renewable sources.

Germany, which will be the biggest consumer of Russian gas in 2020, has been rushing to increase its gas supplies before winter even though Russia has decreased deliveries.

It wants to have 85% of its gas capacity filled by October. It has implemented energy-saving measures.

In addition to purchasing gas from alternate providers, Economy Minister Robert Habeck claimed that these steps had allowed Germany to achieve its objective earlier than expected.

By the beginning of September, he predicted, the 85% goal could be accomplished.