EU summit: Macron warns Scholz against isolation

At the summit in Brussels, a European solution to the high gas prices will also be sought. French President Macron criticized Chancellor Scholz’s course in the energy crisis and warned that Germany should not “isolate” itself within the EU.

To cap or not, that is the question to which Europe has not yet found a common answer. On the contrary. Even if a majority of EU countries still want to curb the explosion in energy costs with a price cap for gas imports. France and Italy, for example, but also Spain, Belgium and Lithuania. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda says: “We want measures that bring the price down immediately. And those are caps. For national gas prices, for wholesale and for gas that is used to generate electricity.”

However, Denmark, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, among others, reject this. They fear that a European price cap will jeopardize security of supply, because supplying countries may then send their liquid gas tankers to places where there is more money to be made. “Like everyone else, we want prices to go down,” says Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, “but so that gas continues to be supplied.”

Criticism of the German attitude

Germany is also skeptical and thinks it makes more sense for the EU to get together when purchasing gas in order to negotiate prices with suppliers, as suggested by Ursula von der Leyen’s commission for at least 15 percent of Europe’s gas needs. Chancellor Olaf Scholz says:

The fear: the supplying countries send their LNG tankers to places where more is paid, such as to Asia. However, the German defensive attitude towards price caps for gas is causing criticism in other countries. This also applies to the rejection of a new, debt-financed investment program that some capitals want to deal with the energy crisis. Instead – according to Berlin, but also from Austria and the Netherlands – the many hundreds of billions from the Corona reconstruction fund that are still unused in Brussels accounts should first be tapped.

Macron still sees a lot of agreement with Berlin

Despite all the differences of opinion, French President Emmanuel Macron still sees a lot of agreement with the federal government and wants to work with Olaf Scholz, because, according to the less diplomatic addition, “it is neither good for Europe nor for Germany if you isolate yourself.”

Germany isolated? lack of solidarity? A blocker? Chancellor Scholz firmly rejects this, as well as the ongoing criticism of the German “double boom” and points out that the 200 billion from the energy relief package are intended for three years. “If you convert that to this time, then it’s exactly the same as what France is doing, what Italy is doing, what Spain is doing and many other countries too, so it fits quite well,” said Scholz.

Tougher sanctions on Iran

The EU still agrees that aid for Ukraine must continue. Politically, financially, humanitarianly and also with weapons so that the country can defend itself against the Russian aggressors. Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins:

New, stricter sanctions against Russia, as demanded above all by the Eastern Europeans, are not an issue at this summit. The EU has already decided on further punitive measures against Iran. The European Union is convinced that the mullah regime supplies the Russian army with kamikaze drones for its attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine – even if the leadership in Tehran claims the opposite.