Harsh speech by the premier at the European Council: “When a powerful one says no to price cap, prices go up. Now we have recession and breakdown of EU unity, Putin wins”
Harsh speech by Prime Minister Mario Draghi at the European Council. The conclusions of the European Council, in draft, “are not balanced”. They are asked to give “solidarity” in the sharing of energy, but “there is no solidarity” on requests to “contain prices” for gas, Draghi said, according to what Adnkronos has learned from a source in Brussels. As “painful” as it is, given that we have been working to limit gas prices for “seven months”, “I cannot accept these conclusions
The “conclusions” of the European Council and the proposals of the “Commission” envisage a series of “precise obligations” on the sharing of gas supplies: the mandatory 15%, rules for sharing in the event of shortages, and so on. But “there are no concrete decisions” on the immediate adoption of the price ceiling, on budget solidarity, on the immediate implementation of the Iberian model, on the reform of the market. The first points are “precise and adoptable”, but “there is nothing specific about prices“said the prime minister.
When someone “powerful” says no to the gas price ceiling, the prices “go up”. Nor is that “enough” to get price action, Draghi said. And this way of thinking, he stressed, has already provoked “immense damage”, because “we financed Putin’s war” and “caused the recession”. The European Commission says that electricity consumption will “drop”, and “there is no doubt”, it will drop as we “go further into recession. You will see it”. Without taking action to contain gas prices, in the EU we have “recession” and “market fragmentation”, the “rupture” of European unity and “Putin’s victory”, underlined the prime minister.
For Draghi, Italy can go “its own way” on energy: by making “some effort”, it could become “totally independent” of both Russian gas and that from Northern Europe.
In addition, the EU needs a “common capacity” for collection, which puts countries with less fiscal space on the same playing field as those with more means. It is a question of protecting the “internal market” and not of “solidarity”. It should only consist of “loans” and the size of what Germany used “for itself”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com