Iran war turns EU leaders’ summit into an energy showdown – POLITICO

“The agreement is that the measures in terms of the energy transition — decarbonization, clean homegrown energy — is the right path to continue,” said a senior EU official, who was granted anonymity to disclose details about the summit preparations. 

But “leaders want to see concrete measures to reduce the prices also in the shorter term,” the official added. “I think here there’s no secret that there are different positions on how this should be tackled.” 

Short term vs. long term

The EU executive, for its part, has some ideas. In a letter to leaders on Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen largely passed the buck to national governments, suggesting they make use of existing EU rules to unleash subsidies and cut electricity taxes. 

Her proposals for EU-level measures tend toward longer-term solutions, promising legislative action for the efficient use of power grids, financial aid for energy-intensive industries, and steps to prevent the bloc’s carbon price from spiking. 

For countries preferring to focus on the longer term, that’s the right approach. 

“Some of the initiatives being taken on the European level … will help for the medium and longer term to speed up the energy transition, which is the only real solution to this,” Dutch Climate Minister Stientje van Veldhoven said in an interview. “But for shorter-term measures, it’s more up to the national [governments] to assess what’s most appropriate.”