The European Commission also wants to lower energy prices: does it really have the tools to do so?

Energy Minister Tine van der Straten (Green) said he was pleased that Commission President von der Leyen was taking action. “I am pleased that there are advanced insights in the European Commission,” she says. “Belgium is taking the lead and more and more countries, including Germany, share the Belgian position.”

According to Van der Straeten, we must take the von der Leyen declaration seriously and the European Commission will indeed step in to control energy prices.

“The President of the Commission is accustomed not to make empty declarations. I would like to see the implementation of measures before the end of the year. The price cap has been our main sticking point since February. We have already made several proposals with the Prime Minister and the European Commission Minister,” explains van der Straiten in Terzaki.

The Energy Minister also points to the 16 percent price drop we saw today based on Germany’s announcement of reserves filling. And we will meet with European energy ministers on September 9, when there are concrete proposals on the table, on how we can impose a cap on the price of gas, as well as on the automatic linkage between electricity and gas. If the market is in a frenzy, we need to be able to stop trading for a while.”

Van der Straeten also calls for solidarity, both for energy exchange and for pricing. “Spain and Portugal are very isolated countries. They can hardly transport gas to other countries, Belgium has a different picture. We show solidarity and export as much as possible to Germany and France. We show solidarity when it comes to energy exchange. Come in terms of price. We are facing rising prices while We give our energy as much as possible.”