“After months of deliberation and deflection, it is time for Europe to place a cap on natural gas prices. Russia has weaponized energy”, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasises in an opinion piece published today in the Bloomberg agency entitled “Europe Can Fight Putin By Capping Gas Prices”.

The PM goes on to say “Faced with massive costs, businesses and households must conserve energy and switch to alternative fuels. All this is necessary. But we must distinguish between “savings” and devastation, between sensible reductions in energy consumption and uncontrolled prices that shut down our industries and bankrupt households and small businesses.”

The PM stressed, however, that “A cap on prices carries risks, of course. But as we move into winter, the dangers of inertia compound. We cannot afford to sit back and watch as Russia uses our market institutions against us. It is an act of common sense, and of sovereignty, to step in and design rules that respond to the unprecedented challenge we face. Imposing a cap on natural gas prices is an inevitable step in that process.”

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“Sooner or later, markets will balance — but without a cap on prices, the cost of that balancing will be measured in lives destroyed and jobs lost. This is why I proposed in July a pan-European scheme to compensate large energy users for reducing their consumption, bringing the market into balance without resorting to extreme prices”, he writes.

more at bloomberg.com