The European Commission is negotiating with reliable gas suppliers a reduction of the price of gas supplied by gas pipelines, and if that fails, the capping of gas prices could be an option, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said on Thursday.

Simson made the statement ahead of an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers, to be held in Brussels on Friday.

The ministers are expected to reach an agreement on a proposal to reduce demand for electricity in order to reduce prices for consumers and on measures for the redistribution of surplus energy sector revenue to the benefit of end-users.

The EC proposes the obligation to reduce power consumption by at least 5% during the chosen hours of peak load. The member states will have to determine 10% of hours with the highest expected price and lower demand during those peak hours.

The EC’s second measure is about setting the upper limit for revenue by ‘inframarginal’ power producers, that is, power plants with lower costs that do not use natural gas but renewable energy sources, nuclear energy and lignite to produce electricity.

The third proposal is a temporary solidary contribution for surplus profit made in activities in the oil, gas, coal and refining sector that are not covered by the inframarginal upper revenue limit.

A group of countries, including Croatia, have asked the EC to prepare a proposal for the coming ministerial meeting on capping the wholesale price of natural gas. A letter with that request has been signed by 15 member states, which could secure a qualified majority and adopt the proposal, but for it to be put on the agenda of the Council, it must be put forward by the EC, which it has not done but has instead prepared a document that will serve as a basis for discussion at the ministerial meeting.

The document notes that the possibility of Russia redirecting its natural gas sales to other markets in an act of possible retaliation if the EU caps the price of Russian gas, is neglectable.

If Russian gas deliveries are entirely stopped, the EU as a whole could cope during the winter with average temperatures thanks to stored reserves and the plan for lowering demand adopted in July, says the document.

For the member states currently depending on Russian gas, a solution should be found in the full solidarity of other members, says the document.

Commissioner Simson says that Russia is not a reliable partner but the cause of problems, noting that she strongly believes the price of Russian gas should be capped at a level to make it still attractive to Russia to continue exporting gas to Europe.

She adds that she is willing to propose capping the price of gas intended for the production of electricity.

Price capping must not lead to an increase in gas consumption because if more gas is used and bought on the tight global market, it will encourage further price growth, she said.