BRUSSELS — The European Commission is edging toward a more superficial fix for the growing energy panic as it faces pressure from member countries not to drastically overhaul EU climate laws.
Ahead of a key summit of energy ministers Monday and a gathering of EU leaders later in the week, member countries are divided over how the EU should respond to the soaring energy costs triggered by the Iran war, which has closed off a key shipping choke point for the energy trade.
The Commission is still pooling ideas from member states but has yet to commit formally to a single policy response. A number of countries are waiting for more “concrete” policies, as POLITICO reported last week.
But among those countries, two broad camps have emerged. Some want the EU executive to use the crisis to enact long-term changes they were calling for even before the Iran war sharpened the EU’s focus on the matter, and have advocated that key pieces of climate legislation underpinning the bloc’s electricity and carbon markets be unpicked or even scrapped.
