Minister for Energy of Belgium Tinne Van der Straeten has warned that EU countries will face five to 10 terrible winters without gas cap, reports British broadcaster BBC.
Calls are increasing for an EU–wide cap on the price of gas and its decoupling from the price of electricity.
EU states have been struggling with huge energy price hikes since key gas supplier Russia invaded Ukraine in February, triggering sanctions. Countries backing Ukraine are trying to cut imports of Russian gas and oil.
Russia, which supplied the EU with 40% of its gas last year, has in turn restricted supplies.
Minister for Energy of Belgium wrote on Twitter that gas prices in Europe needed to be frozen urgently, adding that the link between gas and electricity prices was artificial and needed to be reformed.
«The next five to 10 winters will be terrible if we don’t do anything,» said Tinne Van der Straeten.
«We must act at source, at European level, and work to freeze gas prices.»
Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer urged to stop the madness that is happening right now on energy markets and said that electricity prices must go down, calling on the EU to decouple electricity and gas prices.
«We cannot let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin determine the European electricity price every day,» he added.
Natural gas is still widely used to generate electricity and because of the increase in gas prices it also costs more.
Significantly, this price is used when buying electricity wholesale even when it comes from much cheaper renewable resources.
Germany – the largest importer of Russian gas in 2020 – has been racing to increase its gas reserves before winter despite Russia cutting deliveries.
Its aim is to fill its gas capacity to 85% by October. It has implemented energy–saving measures to do so.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck said such measures – along with buying gas from alternative suppliers – had enabled Germany to fulfil its goal sooner than anticipated.