EU fails to reach gas price deal

The ministers will meet again in December in an effort to overcome these divisions, said Czech Industry Minister Joseph Shechem, whose country currently heads the EU presidency.

He added that the ministers managed to approve several other key “measures, including joint gas purchases, to avoid price hikes from competition within the EU and to speed up authorisation of renewable energy sources.

Several ministers attending Thursday's meeting complained that the proposal for the price of gas ceiling, published by the European Commission only two days ago, was intended never to be used.

Polish and Spanish energy ministers called the proposal “

Greek Energy Minister Costas Skrekas said the price set “in fact is not a ceiling price” and added that “we are wasting valuable time without results”.

The ceiling price settlement plan, for which the commission was never very interested, sets a maximum price of 275 euros per hour megawatt.

But this price is associated with many conditions that would not have been activated even in August, when the price of gas rose temporarily over 300 euros, alerting priced Europe as much as 10 percent of that figure.

Lowering Russian gas prices

The proposal would only be activated if the maximum price of 275 euros was continually spent for at least two weeks, and then only if the price for liquid natural gas (LNG) was raised over 58 euros per ten days within that two-week period.

The price of gas in abundance in Europe on Thursday was around 124 euros.

The commission's proposal was seen as a neutral proposal formulated under pressure from members such as Germany and the Netherlands, who feared that setting the ceiling price could send gas supplies to more profitable markets, especially Asia.

However, at least 15 EU countries -- more than half of the European bloc -- demanded the ceiling price in order to ease the supply crisis due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

While the European Union has not stopped Russian gas, the Kremlin has halted its exports in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Brussels.

Before the war, Russian gas supplies made up more than 40 percent of all the gas imported to the European Union. This supply has now dropped to less than 10 percent.