The tone of the EU energy debate is getting sharper, and Germany is increasingly on the defensive.

For a long time, concern about the gas supply was the focus, but now there is alarm in many parts of Europe because of the high gas prices.

Almost two thirds of the EU countries are calling for a price cap on gas – and that immediately.

At the start of the EU summit meeting in Brussels on Thursday, the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, also urged quick steps to be taken that would immediately reduce the price.

Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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There is great unity among the EU countries, emphasized French President Emmanuel Macron.

He will do everything to convince Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"It is not good, neither for Germany nor for Europe, if it isolates itself," he emphasized and also repeated the call for a new solidarity mechanism - financed by EU debt.

This is a problem for Germany.

According to experts, other states, for example in southern Europe, can also hope for sufficient supplies with a gas price cap.

Things are different for Germany – and it cannot be supplied with enough gas from the south to avoid bottlenecks.

That is why the federal government is using all means to resist a gas price cap of any kind.

"We have to set up what we decide so that it works," warned Scholz.

"Not that there won't be any gas afterwards.

That doesn’t help anyone either.”

Hardly any support for Scholz

However, only a few states see it in a similar way.

The Netherlands are just as much a part of this as Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria and Hungary.

However, Berlin's concerns about security of supply are shared by the European Commission.

She also warns that tankers with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in particular would simply turn off if the EU capped the price at a low level.

The Commission has therefore long sought to whitewash the differences over the gas price cap and thus simply delay the debate.

She initially suggested lowering prices by negotiating with "reliable partners" such as the US, Algeria, and above all Norway.

Norway in particular earns a lot of money given the relatively low subsidy costs of around 10 euros per megawatt hour.

So far, however, the negotiations have not led to any tangible result.

The next line of defense was joint gas purchasing, which was also proposed by the federal government.

According to the crisis package presented by the Commission on Tuesday, the Europeans are to buy 15 percent of the gas needed to refill the storage facilities after this winter.

This is intended to prevent states from driving up prices in mutual outbidding competition, as they did this summer.

The hope behind these largely undisputed proposals was that the calls for a price cap would become quieter.

This also applies to the proposal to develop a new price index for gas by March 2023, which better reflects that the EU is now buying a lot of LNG.

The Commission hopes that gas prices will fall in the meantime and that the debate will ease up.

In fact, prices have fallen below 150 euros since the summer, when the futures contracts of the Amsterdam leading index TTF rose to 350 euros per megawatt hour.

On the spot market, where the gas is traded for a short period of time, it is only 70 euros.

No Spanish gas for Berlin

Nevertheless, the Commission's calculations have not worked out, at least so far.

On the contrary: the price cap debate has picked up speed.

Even the Commission's initiative to examine a dynamic price cap for the TTF spot market "as a last resort" for this winter has not changed anything.

In addition, this mini-cap is linked to too many conditions, such as extreme price fluctuations and that the security of supply is not endangered.

Ultimately, the proposal for a "market correction mechanism" seems as if it was designed in the first place never to be used.

Nevertheless, the federal government is also blocking it.

However, the decision on the correction mechanism will ultimately have to be made by the energy ministers anyway - if necessary with a qualified majority against Germany, according to Brussels.

After the summit, the commission will again have to deal with the price cap for the use of gas in power generation, which Germany has also rejected.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has repeatedly mentioned the "Iberian model", which Spain and Portugal have already introduced to lower electricity prices, as an option.

However, she has shied away from a specific legislative proposal because the model has led to an increase in consumption in Spain and the costs would be immense because the state would have to compensate for the difference between the world market price for natural gas and the price that electricity producers pay.

Regardless of the European debate, Scholz had to record a defeat even before the summit began.

French President Macron agreed with the heads of government of Spain and Portugal on a solution to the dispute over the planned Midcat pipeline that had been smoldering for weeks.

The federal government had hoped to be supplied first with gas and later with hydrogen through this pipeline via the Pyrenees from Spain through France.

Macron had opposed the project with the argument that it would promote fossil infrastructure, which was met with severe criticism in Berlin.

Midcat is now to be replaced by a "green corridor" from Barcelona to Marseille, which will transport "green" hydrogen and first natural gas.