In one of the darkest hours of its recent history, shaken by the winds of crisis in Ukraine, by rising inflation and by the price of gas, the European Union is slow to get up and seems a prisoner of logics belonging to a remote past. That of the great enlargements to the east of the EU in 2004 and 2007 when the debate was mainly concentrated on the questions of deepening or watering down the Union. The EU summit in Prague which opened on Thursday saw the "monstre" format brought together for the first time with 44 countries of the so-called European Political Community. Previously there had to be only the 27 plus the candidate countries, therefore 36 in all. Then, in addition to the United Kingdom and the EFTA countries, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey were also included with the Ukrainian president Zelenski via video link from Kiev.
This was decided at the European Council of 23-24 June to follow up on the so-called "Wider Europe" but the presidency of the Czech Republic (perhaps looking for some tangible results) has accelerated the times and convened the summit in conjunction with the traditional Council informal meeting of the heads of state and government which is always held in the capitals of the EU countries which have the presidency on duty.
Prague summit at 44: wanted by Macron, excluding Russia
Il EU summit in Prague at 44 it is held five months after Emmanuel Macron presented the Political Community as a response to Russia's war in Ukraine. A format, it is explained, that would have the purpose of meeting those candidate countries for membership of the European Union. Requests in some cases "outdated" by the application for membership of Ukraine and Moldova in the aftermath of the invasion of Russia. Macron himself underlined that the European political community it will not be an alternative to membership but a deeper cooperation with democratic countries across the continent. The president of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel defended the format: "We share the same continent and face the same challenges - he said - we have the opportunity to understand how we can improve cooperation and coordination to have more stability, more security , more peace”.
But a summit inevitably conditioned by war in Ukraine, reason for the exclusion for two states which, at least geographically, should be included in the club ie Russia and Belarus. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was clear on the point: "The whole continent is here except for two countries, Belarus and Russia: this shows how isolated these two countries are". But from here to take decisions at 44 we run. It lacks an organizational structure and a secretariat. In essence it was a great photo opportunity.
To give an appearance of content two parallel round tables: "Energy, climate and economy" and "Peace and security". The first was attended by the Italian premier Mario Draghi who insisted on a unified response for the gas price. "We have to work together to tackle the energy crisis - said Draghi - we can also do it in random order, but we would lose European unity". The objective being worked on is to restore correct price dynamics, thus also keeping theinflationAnd. It was also highlighted how, thanks to the contribution of some non-EU countries, it has been possible to rapidly expand the sources of natural gas supply, accelerating the diversification of the energy mix.
Prague summit: Italy presents the proposal on the gas price cap
La Italian proposal (shared by Poland, Greece and Belgium) would envisage a sort of “dynamic corridor. It would be a matter of establishing a central value for this corridor and reviewing it regularly taking into account external benchmarks (e.g. crude oil prices) and allowing for fluctuations (e.g. by 5%) around the central value within the corridor”. Something reminiscent of the money snake with swing bands.
In fact, the document provides that the application of this "dynamic corridor" has a central value that would represent an upper limit that can be placed on a reference hub (such as the TTF) or can be placed on several hubs (Peg, Psv , Zee, to avoid arbitrage), or it can cover all transactions (both on-exchange and OTC). Furthermore, fluctuations around the central value would be possible to provide price signals for the movement of gas through Member States, in case more hubs hit the cap”.
The proposal is contained in a document (formally "non paper") circulated by Italy in these hours in the European institutions and sent to the Commission. It will also be discussed today, Friday 7 October in the informal meeting of heads of state and government at 27 but above all at Council of 20 and 21 October in Brussels. For now, we are thinking above all of enlarged formats. But a real gas deal is still a long way off.
