Sweden's government will demand that electricity prices on the European energy market be decoupled from the price of gas, which according to the government has become unreasonably high due to Russia's "energy war" against Europe.
- It is not reasonable that Swedish households and companies buy Swedish electricity, which is produced cheaply, but have to pay sky-high prices because our neighboring countries are dependent on the Russian gas, says Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
According to the government, missing gas deliveries have made the electricity price in Germany twice as high as the Swedish price, and in France three times as high.
The European energy market is described as dysfunctional.
- Russia is waging an energy war against Europe and we must take back control.
Disconnecting the electricity prices from the gas prices creates a completely new line of defense, says Andersson without explaining the mechanisms in more detail.
Half price in the south
According to the officials who counted on it, a price separation would mean at least a halving of the electricity price in southern Sweden.
The government will now ask the Riksdag to support the proposal and then take the issue further to the EU Commission.
The Prime Minister will temporarily partially put election campaigning aside to instead work with other EU countries to find a solution.
- Basically, this is a European problem, says Andersson.
No details of how a division of the energy prices will go about, or how the EU can be expected to react to the Swedish government's demands, have so far emerged.
Energy and Digitization Minister Khashayar Farmabar (S) says at the press conference that there are models that have been tested to separate electricity and gas prices, including in Spain and Greece
The text is updated