EU leaders lock horns over response to energy price spike

Poland also wants Brussels to investigate whether the behaviour of Russia’s Gazprom has stoked European gas price rises. The Commission has already agreed to study both issues, but not committed to take immediate action.  EU leaders on Thursday struggled to agree a common 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. The European Commission last week published a “toolbox” outlining the national measures governments can take and said Brussels would look into longer-term options to address price shocks.  EU leaders debated those options on Thursday. Most EU countries have already drawn up emergency action plans to shield consumers, including energy tax cuts and subsidies for poorer households. Their final summit conclusions invited countries to urgently use the toolbox “to provide short-term relief to the most vulnerable consumers and to support European companies”.

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