EU ministers agreed on a tax on excessive profits of energy companies – Topky.sk

EU ministers reached an agreement on the European Commission’s proposals, which could help raise more than 140 billion euros to help people and businesses affected by the crisis. The measures include a tax on windfall excess profits of companies producing or refining oil, gas and coal. The other two main elements of the plan are a temporary ceiling on the sales of low-cost electricity producers, which covers wind, solar and nuclear companies, as well as an obligation for the 27 member countries of the euro bloc to reduce electricity consumption by at least 5% during peak hours. Photo gallery (2) Source: Vertical.com The text agreed by the ministers should be adopted next week and enter into force as soon as possible. “This is only the first part of the puzzle and an immediate patch,” Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela, who chaired the negotiations in Brussels, described the situation according to AP. Síkela emphasized that the package of anti-crisis measures “must not stop” at this, because the EU is in an energy war with Russia and winter is approaching, and therefore action must be taken now, and not in a week or a month. Wholesale price ceiling At the beginning of the week, a group of 15 EU member states, including Slovakia, called on the European Commission to propose a wholesale gas price ceiling as soon as possible in order to help households and businesses struggling with high energy prices. Ministers are discussing this proposal at a meeting on Friday, but according to AP, there was no unanimous support, with Germany in particular blocking the said proposal. The European Commission warned in its analysis on Thursday that such a ceiling could weaken the EU’s ability to ensure sufficient gas supplies on the world market. However, the Commission is open to the idea of ​​introducing a price ceiling for Russian gas in order to mitigate the impact of the crisis and at the same time negotiate a lower gas price with other suppliers.