Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck has accused some supplying states of natural gas of excessive prices.

“Some countries, including friendly ones, sometimes achieve moon prices.

Of course, that brings with it problems that we have to talk about," Habeck told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Wednesday.

He is counting on the EU Commission to talk about this with the friendly states.

The Green politician mentioned the United States in this context.

“The US approached us when oil prices skyrocketed, and Europe's national oil reserves were tapped as a result.

I think such solidarity would also be good for curbing gas prices," Habeck said, referring to the government in Washington.

According to the minister, the EU should "bundle its market power and orchestrate smart and synchronized purchasing behavior by the EU states so that individual EU countries do not outbid each other and drive up world market prices".

The European market power is "enormous" and only has to be used.

The commission of experts on the gas price brake set up by the federal government wants to present a proposal at the weekend, as the chairmen of the commission announced on Tuesday.

"The Commission is working flat out to present politicians with recommendations for a balanced and practicable gas price brake as soon as possible," it said.

These are the economist Veronika Grimm, the chairman of the energy union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis, and industry president Siegfried Russwurm.

"The chairmen are striving for the commission to work out a resilient proposal during its retreat next weekend and present it to politicians."