The German chancellor is delicate on the natural gas issue

Olaf Scholz, after a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel at their joint conference, when asked how afraid they were that Russian President Vladimir Putin would completely cut off natural gas supplies if the EU introduced a higher cap. Gas, he said, “very carefully”, it is necessary to listen to what member states that rely heavily on Russian supplies have to say about such plans.

Germany, along with many other countries, stood by to ensure that natural gas would not be affected by punitive measures imposed on Russia over its war against Ukraine.

There are no such sanctions, the difficulties arise only because Vladimir Putin withheld supplies, “apparently in order to weaken or destabilize European democracy”, Olaf Scholes underlined.

However, the Russian chancellor’s attempt ends in failure, the German chancellor said, as Europeans stand in solidarity with each other.

Speaking at a meeting of member states’ ministers responsible for energy affairs in Brussels on Friday, Olaf Scholz indicated that his government supports the planned EU-wide regulation of the electricity market. Natural gas. As he said, the approach of the German government and the European Commission, the EU proposal agency, is very similar.

He explained: The essence of the idea is that a temporary profit tax should be used to offset the very high profits of wind, solar, hydro and nuclear and coal energy to reduce energy costs for consumers. Generators get by by adjusting the cost of electricity to the costs of more expensive gas-fired power plants.

Charles Michael highlighted that Russia is an “incredible player” in the natural gas market and its efforts are aimed at threatening the EU. He explained that in order to overcome the energy crisis, progress must be made in three areas, the first is to reduce consumption, the second is to strengthen security of supply, and the third is to shape prices, however, this is more serious. Complex task.

Regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine, the German chancellor also said that the European Union would soon provide a loan of five billion euros to the Ukrainian government. In addition, Germany is helping the country defend itself against Russian aggression with an extra one billion euros nationally, and hopes other member states will follow suit, Olaf Scholes said.

On the future of the European Union, the German chancellor and the president of the European Council, which unites the governments of the member states, both stressed the need to modernize decision-making above all in foreign policy. To strengthen the capacity to act in this area, it is necessary to break decisions based on absolute agreement and switch to a majority decision-making process.

Olaf Scholz emphasized that it is “absolutely clear” that the foreign policy of the expanding EU cannot be based on consensus in a multipolar world that will soon have a population of ten billion.