Energy ministers have agreed to demand from the member states a mandatory reduction of energy consumption during peak hours in the EU, the European energy commissioner Kadri Simson announced after the end of their meeting. However, on the issue of the gas price ceiling from Russia, it became clear that there is no unified position.

There are four main components on which member states expect the Commission to make legislative proposals within a few days, so that discussions can be concluded by the end of the month and possibly an extraordinary energy council will be convened, said the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Jozef Sikela. These are: a cap on the income of producers of electricity with low production costs, a cap on gas prices, measures to reduce electricity consumption across the EU and help to solve the problem of reduced liquidity. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson emphasized:

"We intend to impose binding targets on member states to reduce peak-hour consumption. They will then have to implement them based on national circumstances."

Minister Sikela explained that he expects, in this case, to be approached as in the gas reduction agreement - first, to have a voluntary approach, which will subsequently become mandatory. In August, the energy ministers agreed that the member countries should reduce the consumption of blue fuel by 15 percent by the end of March. The stumbling block, however, turned out to be the ceiling on gas prices from Russia this time.

Minister Sikela admitted that more time was needed to reach an agreement on the matter.

The idea of ​​imposing a ceiling on gas prices in the EU as a whole was discussed, which European Commissioner Simson commented as follows:

"Indeed, several ministers today asked us to analyze a possible price cap on all the gas that the EU imports. But if the aim of our policy is to respond to Russian manipulations in the supply of blue fuel to Europe, it makes sense to target only Russian gas".

Also today in Brussels, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was too early to say whether the latest actions by the Ukrainian military marked a turning point in the war. However, he noted that Ukraine is acting very purposefully, with a strong plan and critically supported with resources that many of the NATO member countries provide to it.

The EU Council also terminated the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. It has already been published in the Official Journal of the Community and will apply from 12 September.

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