EU leaders to lock horns over response to energy price spike

(Reuters, 21 Oct 2021) The price spike has stoked familiar tensions between EU countries over the bloc's policies to fight climate change, with Poland this week calling for Brussels to change or delay some planned green measures.

EU leaders on Thursday will debate their response to soaring energy prices, which have exposed familiar rifts over the bloc's climate change goals and divided countries on whether the price crunch warrants an overhaul of EU energy market rules.

EU country leaders will discuss a "toolbox" the EU Commission published last week, which outlined the national measures governments can take and said Brussels would look into longer-term options to address price shocks.

Most EU countries have already drawn up emergency action plans to shield consumers from the price spike, including energy tax cuts and subsidies for poorer households, and on Thursday leaders will encourage others to follow suit.

A draft of their summit conclusions, seen by Reuters, invites countries to urgently use the toolbox "to provide short-term relief to the most vulnerable consumers and to support European companies".

Longer-term measures, however, are more contentious.

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Reuters, 21 Oct 2021: EU leaders to lock horns over response to energy price spike