The

European Council

invites the Commission to "propose viable solutions to reduce prices through a gas price cap".

This is what we read in the provisional draft of the declaration of the informal summit of EU leaders in

Prague

.

The text calls for "accelerating negotiations for mutually beneficial partnerships on security of supply and lower prices".

The declaration, from now to Friday, may be subject to changes and it is not excluded that at the end of the summit there will not even be a 'statement' if it is believed that, on the issues of the energy dossier, there are no steps forward compared to the June summit.

First round in the debate on the new anti-Russian sanctions package proposed by the EU Commission.

In the morning, in fact, the topic was on the table of the meeting of the representatives of the 27 (

Coreper

), with particular attention to the point of the price cap for oil.

In the afternoon the Coreper will meet again but a white smoke on the package, except for twists, is not expected by the day today.   

Several member countries, as far as we know, have not expressed opposition in principle to the measure, but have in fact asked for time for technical investigations on the oil

price cap

that the Commission has proposed for crude oil exported from the Union to third countries.

Among the most skeptical countries there is, as already announced by Budapest in recent days,

Hungary

.

One of the points that Viktor Orban's government has insisted on is a "

derogation for regional trade

"which would allow Hungary to re-export the Russian oil it continues to receive to neighboring EU countries (with the exemption from the embargo on oil arriving via pipeline) and to process it in refineries. The Commission's concern is that this may give Hungary an unfair advantage in the single market. But among the countries that have expressed doubts there are also

Cyprus, Malta and Hungary.

In this case the fears are linked to the maritime transport of oil: with a price cap imposed on their fleets of oil tankers, the risk is that the same ban will also be imposed by other important shipping countries, such as Turkey, India and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian public energy company

MVM

has reached an agreement with the Russian gas monopolist Gazprom on the extension of payments for gas in order to cushion the effects of price fluctuations, while relations between Russia and Europe are also bad on the issue of supplies. of gas.

The Hungarian energy minister

Marton Nagy

announced today , according to the Hungarian news portal Index.hu.

Viktor Orban's Hungary advocates a soft line in the EU towards Vladimir Putin's Russia with respect to the invasion of Ukraine and is at loggerheads with Brussels on respect for civil rights