Belgian energy minister calls for gas price freeze

Fears of a severe winter in Europe are growing - in a post on Twitter, the Belgian energy minister warned that the countries of the Old Continent are facing "between five and ten terrible winters" if something is not done to reduce gas prices.

According to Tine Van der Strate, blue fuel prices should be frozen immediately and the artificial link between gas and electricity prices should be broken. This is what Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for. Statistics show that prices per megawatt hour of electricity in France and Germany have increased tenfold in a year. Calls for Brussels to impose a cap on gas prices and to remove the linking of the price of blue fuel to that of electricity are growing. Energy prices have skyrocketed because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Western countries are looking for alternative sources of Russian gas and oil, but this is a process and cannot happen so quickly, experts explain. Only a year ago the EU was receiving 40% of its blue fuel from Moscow. Its supply is now very limited.