The political agreement was reached at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki welcomed the decision, saying in a tweet: “We have reached agreement on capping the price of gas at EUR 180/MWh. At the most recent meetings in Brussels, our majority coalition succeeded in overcoming resistance, mainly from Germany.”
Morawiecki added: “This means Russia and its company Gazprom will no longer be able to manipulate the market.”
Meanwhile, Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa, who represented Poland at Monday's meeting, tweeted: “For the past few months, Poland had been calling for an effective mechanism to stabilise gas prices on the European market. Thanks to our efforts, at today’s Energy Council we adopted a cap on gas prices of EUR 180/MWh.”
Poland’s Permanent Representation to the EU wrote on Twitter: “We welcome the agreement of EU ministers on a gas price cap of EUR 180/MWh and which includes a cap on all European hubs.”
Monday’s deal foresees that the capping of the gas price at EUR 180/MWh will apply to all European gas exchanges, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
This means that the market correction mechanism will kick in if the price of gas exceeds EUR 180/MWh for three consecutive working days, officials said.
The plan is set to come into effect on February 15 and last for one year, the politico.eu news service reported.
In Monday’s vote, the Netherlands and Austria abstained, while Hungary voted against the measure, according to the IAR news agency.
The agreement to cap the gas price comes after four months of talks in which a coalition of 15 pro-cap member states, including Poland, locked horns with Germany, supported by the Netherlands and Denmark, IAR reported.
Berlin eventually came round and voted for the price cap, officials told reporters.
At EUR 180/MWh, the agreed price cap is much lower than the EUR 275/MWh proposed earlier by the European Commission, officials said.
EU energy ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday also adopted regulations to enhance solidarity through better coordination of gas purchases and through exchanges of gas across borders in crisis situations, news outlets reported.
Monday was day 299 of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, politico.eu, consilium.europa.eu