EU leaders to debate response to soaring energy prices

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EU leaders to debate response to soaring energy prices

This may include adverts from us and 3 rd parties based on our understanding. EU leaders today will debate their response to soaring energy prices, which have exposed familiar rifts over the bloc's climate change goals and divided countries on whether the price crunch warrants an overhaul of EU energy market rules. EU country leaders will discuss a toolbox published by the EU Commission last week, which outlined the national measures governments can take and said Brussels would look into longer-term options to address price shocks.

Most EU countries have already drawn up emergency action plans to shield consumers from the price spike, including energy tax cuts and subsidies for poorer households, and on Thursday leaders will encourage others to follow suit. A draft of their summit conclusions invites countries to urgently use the toolbox to support the most vulnerable consumers and to provide short-term relief to European companies. Longer-term measures, however, are more contentious. One EU diplomat said that the member states are very split. There is no national vision on what to do except follow the toolbox and use common measures to address vulnerable consumers - but beyond that there is absolutely no agreement. European gas prices have hit record highs as tight supply collided with economies emerging from the COVID - 19 pandemic, pushing up consumers' electricity bills amid record-high CO 2 prices and lower than expected gas deliveries from Russia. Countries including Spain, Italy and Greece want the EU to respond with regulatory changes. They propose joint gas buying among EU countries to form strategic reserves and decoupling European electricity prices from the cost of gas-fuelled generation.

EU states that violate the rule of law should not receive EU funds, the head of the European Union parliament, David Sassoli, said before the national leaders of the bloc's 27 member countries convened in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The European Union is a community built on principles of democracy and the rule of law. If these are under threat in a member state, the EU must act to protect them. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is set to defend the October 7 ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal stating that elements of EU law were incompatible with the country's constitution. It's a major problem and a challenge for the Polish project, a French official said of the French ruling. Morawiecki has already come under fire from EU lawmakers this week and the head of the Commission said the challenge to the unity of the European legal order would not go unanswered. This, as well as other policies introduced by his ruling Law and Justice PiS party, are set to cost Poland money. Drop childish approach! New UK-EU Brexit alliance fires ultimatum INSIGHT EU summit in chaos before it begins! Irish rebels to derail Brexit LIVE: UK firm sees EU business surge 'five-fold' LIVE BLOG A senior EU diplomat said such policies were not tenable in the European Union. The Commission has for now barred Warsaw from tapping into 57 billion euros $66 billion of emergency funds to help its economy emerge from the COVID pandemic. Warsaw also risks losing other EU handouts, as well as penalties from the top court of the bloc. Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg are also among those determined to bring Warsaw into line and have stepped up their criticism since PiS came to power in 2015. The immediate consequences to Poland - with some 38 million people - the biggest ex-communist EU country - are financial. But for the EU, the latest twist in feuds with the eurosceptic PiS also comes at a sensitive time as it grapples with the fallout from Brexit. The bloc - without Britain - achieved a major leap in integration last year in agreeing to joint debt guarantees to raise 750 billion euros for COVID economic recovery, overcoming stiff resistance from wealthy states like the Netherlands.