Mateusz Morawiecki made the appeal during an informal summit of European Union leaders in the Czech capital Prague on Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Cap on gas prices
The Polish prime minister told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting that the number one topic at Friday's European Council summit was energy. "We talked about the maximum gas prices,” he said.
He added: “We already discussed this case in April. Once again, we have called on the European Commission to act very quickly.”
Morawiecki said that “hopefully the points we discussed today will lead us to positive conclusions and at last we’ll use the powerful strength of the EU to achieve the cap on gas prices.”
Call for freeze on prices of emissions allowances
The Polish PM also told reporters: “I presented Polish concepts for reducing the energy prices.”
He added that Poland’s plan concerned CO2 emissions allowances, which “are currently causing a significant spike in energy prices.”
Morawiecki stated: “We understand the need for climate policy, but today we are in a very difficult position. We are all under tremendous pressure over the war in Ukraine. We have to use those instruments that are in our hands.”
He argued: “Today, for the good of our residents, we need to free up many CO2 emissions allowances, ideally to float tens, hundreds of millions of allowances onto the market, or to put an administrative freeze on the price of CO2 emissions allowances, capping the price at EUR 20-EUR 30.”
He added that the freeze would be temporary.
Morawiecki said that “so far, the European Commission is turning a deaf ear to these appeals.”
He stated: “I find it surprising because this is a readily available measure and if the European Commission was able to take action, all the people of Poland would immediately have cheaper energy.”
Frozen Russian assets
The Polish prime minister said he had suggested to fellow EU leaders that the bloc should use frozen Russian wealth “to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, but also to meet the needs of the residents of the EU, the residents of Poland.”
The frozen assets of Russia and its oligarchs are worth some EUR 350 billion, according to Morawiecki.
Germany's energy aid plan
Morawiecki also said that many EU leaders “took a highly critical view” of the German government’s EUR 200 billion plan to protect its citizens and companies from soaring electricity and gas bills.
He told the media that Germany, “the wealthiest EU member,” was seeking “to exploit this crisis to create a competitive edge for its companies against other companies in the single market.”
“It’s not fair, it’s not how the single market should function,” Morawiecki told reporters in Brussels.
Friday was day 226 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, money.pl, gov.pl, consilium.europa.eu, euractiv.com