EU countries struggle to find joint response to energy price spike

Some European Union countries including France and Spain stepped up calls to reform the bloc's energy market rules to cope with high prices, a stance challenged by a rival group of states including Germany, as EU energy ministers met on Thursday.

European energy prices surged to record highs in autumn as tight gas supplies collided with high demand in economies recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

While gas prices have retreated from the record highs seen in October, they remain relatively high.

EU member states have struggled to find a common response to the high prices, despite leaders and ministers holding multiple emergency meetings in recent months to debate the issue.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and six other countries published a joint statement on Wednesday opposing EU energy market reforms.

Price caps or switching to a different system of setting national power prices could discourage electricity trade between countries and undermine incentives to add low-cost renewable energy to the system, the countries said.