Lithuania will continue to support the introduction of a gas price cap at the European Council meeting as a solution to the energy cost crisis, says Asta Skaisgiryte, a senior foreign policy adviser to President Gitanas Nauseda.
“What we are saying is that we must have a wholesale price ceiling for gas, that we must have some financial instruments at the European level to ease the burden. I don’t know whether this will be taken into account and whether any solutions will be proposed,” the president’s adviser said on October 18.
President Nauseda attended an informal meeting of the European Council in Prague on October 7, where this issue was also discussed. According to Skaisgiryte, more than half of the EU member states support the gas price cap.
“There are slightly more than half that see it as a solution. The problem is that not quite everybody has the same idea of how to implement it. Even among the half that support the idea, there are differences in the way it should be implemented,” said Skaisgiryte.
EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on October 20-21 and should discuss long-term as well as immediate measures to control prices, Skaisgiryte said.
“One part is how to manage prices now, the other part is how to avoid situations like what happened this year in the longer term and ensure security of supply,” she said.
Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said after an informal meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Prague that the EU-15 countries were “very clear” in favour of a gas price cap for wholesale transactions, while eight countries were in favour of a cap on gas used for electricity generation.
Lithuania supports both proposals and has urged the European Commission to take a decision on the gas price ceiling before the beginning of winter. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
