The Italian battle for the gas price ceiling that divides the European Commission

On September 30 the issue will be debated again in the European Commission Draghi proposed it last May and even now the vetoes of some countries are holding back the measure Italian politics desperately asks for a measure to control rising energy prices Draghi’s road ends, he has the weeks since Italy votes on September 25 and, it is hoped, shortly after, a new government will be formed. The ministers will go with him, some of them technicians such as the Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani, one of the main ones in an era where the energy problem has been central since the beginning of the war. One of his central objectives has been fulfilled: to complete the reserves so that this winter the lack of Russian gas does not compromise the country. The other, dependent on Europe, is not so simple, but the illusion of achieving a common price cap is not lost in Italy. Mario Draghi’s great proposal and the dream so that the energy and inflation problem can be recomposed. This is how Cingolani himself expressed it just a few days ago: “We have raised very intensely the issue of the ceiling on the price of gas. The result is positive, but there are those who still do not express themselves clearly in favor, ”he explains. The issue, which he intended to reach some conclusion on Tuesday, has been referred to the meeting that the energy ministers will hold on September 30. In a context in which new controls for gas consumption are emerging from Brussels, the price cap issue has been coming and going on the tables in Europe for months. Draghi already proposed it in May, when he saw that it was the best solution to restore the inflation scenario left by the war, but the reticence of some countries has not yet made it possible. The great reticence comes from the Netherlands and other northern countries such as Norway, where they defend that the ceiling on the price of gas will not solve any of the great underlying energy problems that Europe has. They also defend that it cannot be imposed unilaterally on all countries. Instead, the Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani does not lose hope. “There has already been a call from a group of experts, including an Italian,” he says. He has also recently explained that with the crucial meeting at the end of the month in the “two week” arc, the first indications will be known. The range in the debate on the gas price ceiling is very wide and the technical complexity, say the experts, implies that during these months a clear conclusion has not yet been reached. Italy initially requested, as Draghi put it, “a ceiling on the price of Russian gas”, appealing to the main factor that had revolutionized the market before the war. But the situation, after the work of the Italian Executive, has improved. Now Russian dependency has decreased from 40% to 9%, so the gas price ceiling would have to be generalized, and not just that of one supplier, now minimal, for it to be efficient. Countries that do not live in the same situation as Italy and are still very dependent on Russia, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, fear reprisals if the measure goes ahead. Whether or not it is only for the Russian market, skepticism seems to be created by thinking that the measure would generate fear in the markets, already completely revolutionized since the invasion of Ukraine. Time passes and a decision will have to be made as soon as possible due to the discomfort of countries like Italy that have been behind the measure for so many weeks. Spain, after insisting to Brussels, has managed to obtain the so-called “Iberian exception” that allows a ceiling to be applied to the price of gas at the national level. “On the cost of gas, we continue to work on appropriate responses for a global market. The objective is to guarantee lower prices in Europe and guarantee the security of supply”, emphasized Von der Leyen in one of his last statements, but for Italy time seems to be running out and the controversy between the tables of the 27 does not seem to calm down. If the weeks go by, the transalpine country would have to continue fighting for the price cap with a new executive and without the respect that Europe has for Draghi, the fight will be even more difficult.