Soaring energy prices intensify "infighting" among EU countries

　　In recent months, factors such as tight supply, high demand, and low inventories have greatly pushed up the prices of various fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal, which have also directly led to the continuous rise of electricity prices in the European Union. Electricity prices in many countries have reached historical peaks.

　　Since August this year, electricity prices in Spain have continued to rise. By mid-September, electricity prices for Spanish residents had risen by more than 35% over the same period last year. Wholesale electricity prices even rose to 173 Euros/MWh, up 250% over the same period last year. The soaring energy prices aroused strong public dissatisfaction, and then the Spanish government introduced a package of mitigation measures, including levying "new taxes" on energy companies that profit from them and reducing the "energy taxes" that consumers need to pay. In order to fundamentally solve the increase in electricity prices caused by soaring gas prices, Spain formally applied to the EU in the emergency meeting, suggesting that EU countries can jointly purchase natural gas, and hopes to withdraw from the EU’s common electricity price mechanism and formulate its own electricity pricing system.

　　It is understood that at present, natural gas power generation accounts for about 20% of the EU's overall electricity supply. Although the proportion is not high, it plays an important role in peak regulation when electricity demand is high. This also makes natural gas power plants the "pricing side" of the European electricity market. According to this mechanism, EU member states need to pay electricity bills at the price of natural gas power generation-the highest price among all sources of electricity.

　　Spain's proposal has won the support of France, the Czech Republic, Greece and other countries. The governments of these countries believe that the huge fluctuations in fossil fuel prices have adversely affected the operation of the EU energy market, and that the EU electricity market is in urgent need of major reforms.

　　However, before the meeting was officially convened, the nine EU member states headed by Germany clearly expressed their opposition to the above proposal. According to European media Euractiv, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Austria jointly issued a joint statement rejecting reform proposals proposed by Spain, France and other countries, claiming that “when the globalization of fossil fuels soars, we should be very cautious about intervening in the design of the EU energy market."

　　Not only that, contrary to Spain and other countries’ proposals, the joint statement further emphasized the importance of accelerating the integration of the energy markets of EU member states, and urged the EU to reach the goal of 15% electricity interconnection by 2030.

　　In fact, one week before the meeting, the EU had already convened an EU summit. Energy price hikes and green policies were also the main topics at the time. The contradictions among EU member states have been constantly emerging.

　　According to reports, Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary, which are highly dependent on coal, have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the EU’s current climate change policy, believing that climate policy is the main reason for pushing up energy prices. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban even claimed that the EU’s plan to tackle climate change is a “utopian fantasy” and that high energy prices will only destroy the EU’s middle class.

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