Hungary gets exemption from EU gas price cap

Hungary says an agreement has been reached at the European Union that any future EU gas price cap will not apply to long-term gas supply deals like the 15-year deal that Hungary has with Russia’s Gazprom.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on his Facebook page; “We got an exemption from the gas price cap so that will not jeopardize Hungary’s security of gas supply.”

He also said that even if there is a joint gas procurement in Europe “that will not be mandatory for Hungary.”

Meanwhile, after weeks of negotiations among EU country leaders, ministers and diplomats, EU leaders at a summit in Brussels concluded without a final decision on an EU gas price cap.

“We do now have a very good and solid roadmap to keep on working on the topic of energy prices,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

They however reached a decision to keep examining options to put a ceiling on costs.

The 27 countries have already agreed to fill gas storages and claw back revenues from energy firms to spend on helping consumers with crippling bills.

Alternative price benchmark

The EU leaders backed proposals made by the European Commission to launch an alternative price benchmark for liquefied natural gas and voluntary joint gas buying, although laws to make this happen will need to be negotiated over the coming weeks.

In their summit conclusions, EU leaders asked their ministers and the EU’s executive to “submit concrete decisions” on a “temporary dynamic price corridor on natural gas transactions” that would limit price spikes, and a price cap on gas used to generate electricity.

The EU is grappling with high energy prices driving inflation and raising the prospect of recession across the continent, a situation aggravated by Russia’s slashing gas flows following its February invasion of Ukraine.

Zainab Sa’id