At a meeting in Brussels, EU leaders agreed on guidelines for energy prices and self-sufficiency. According to Prime Minister Marin, the decisions will not impose any additional obligations on Finland.
BRUSSELS After a long debate, EU leaders adopted guidelines on energy policy. The energy price cap proposed by Spain and several other countries was raised by the Prime Minister Sanna Marinin according to a lot of discussion.
– The price cap caused a lot of discussion and we honed the wording of the conclusion until the end. But there is a willingness to move forward on these and we are now waiting for more detailed proposals from the Commission, Marin commented.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchezin price cap did not receive unreserved support among EU leaders.
However, according to Sánchez, Spain and Portugal, which have suffered from high energy prices, will be able to implement temporary measures to reduce energy prices. We will return to this in more detail in May.
– We need to be open about all the ways we can get the price of energy down in this acute situation, Marin said after the meeting.
– I do not knock out the idea that there would be a very short-term price cap for energy.
Joint procurement and warehousing
EU leaders also outlined joint natural gas purchases. The aim is to avoid competition between Member States in the energy market, which could help to raise already high prices.
Marin states that the situation with regard to gas is different in Finland compared to many other countries. According to him, Finland will carefully assess the need to participate in joint procurement.
– It is essential that there is no obligation to participate, but that each country assesses whether it will contribute to these joint procurements. But I think this makes sense on the whole so that we don’t compete with each other.
More generally, according to Marini, member states share the view that Europe needs to break away from Russian energy and invest in other energy sources.
– Of course, the common will is to alleviate this acute situation, but also to create a path in the longer term to make Europe more energy self-sufficient together.
Additional sanctions will be returned soon
Despite the wishes of several member states, the European Council did not take a position on the new sanctions package. So far, oil and gas imports from Russia will not be addressed.
However, the EU is ready to make progress on additional sanctions, Marin says. He said the Commission would be working on proposals to strengthen sanctions as early as next weekend.
– We are ready to proceed very quickly with additional sanctions.
Marin has repeatedly emphasized Finland’s readiness to tighten sanctions against Russia.
– When we buy energy from Russia, we are financing the war.