EU backs 'roadmap' on energy prices

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders on Friday reached an agreement on a "roadmap" aimed at putting in place measures within weeks to shield European consumers from soaring energy prices.

The accord came after 11 hours of wrangling over broad proposals to lower energy bills that have been pushed skyward by the Ukraine crisis.

The bloc's 27 member states have been squabbling for months over which joint initiatives to adopt, with the discussions complicated by the fact that energy mixes in the countries vary greatly.

While the announcement of the summit text made a public show of unity, it was clear that the coming negotiations would remain difficult. One step in that would come this coming week with a meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg.

The summit agreement set out a "solid roadmap to keep on working on the topic of energy prices", European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told a media conference.

The published text calls on the European Commission and EU countries in coming weeks to find ways to shield consumers from the high prices "while preserving Europe's global competitiveness …and the integrity of the Single Market".

European Council President Charles Michel said that "the energy crisis represents a threat to the internal market" of the EU and stressed "maximal coordination" was needed to protect it.

At least 15 EU countries — more than half the bloc — are pushing for an ambitious cap on prices and are increasingly unsettled by strikes and protests over the cost of living spreading across France, Belgium and other member states.

But the price-cap idea has met resistance from Germany, the EU's biggest economy, fearing that gas supplies could end up shifting to more lucrative markets in Asia.

Several smaller economies are also furious that the German government will not back a gas-price cap and for going it alone in helping its citizens pay for high prices with a 200-billion-euro ($196 billion) spending bonanza.

In the end, the agreed text said a "cost and benefit analysis" of a price cap for electricity generation should be carried out, and that the impact beyond Europe would be assessed.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who had gone into the summit saying Germany was isolating itself, expressed satisfaction with the result.

"The next two or three weeks will allow the commission to come up with these mechanisms" to be implemented.

He said it sent a "very clear signal to the markets of our determination and our unity".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said "good progress" had been made.

"We wanted, together, to limit fluctuations that could be caused by speculation."

Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian troops appeared on Thursday to be girding for a major battle over the Kherson region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces mounted 15 attacks on Russian military strongholds in the region. For its part, Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman said the country's forces repelled Ukrainian attempts to advance with tanks on the Kherson villages of Sukhanove, Nova Kamianka and Chervonyi Yar.

On Friday, Russian officials accused Ukrainian forces of using US-supplied HIMARS missiles to attack people evacuating from the Kherson region, saying they had killed at least four civilians and wounded 13 others.

A Ukrainian official acknowledged an attack but said it occurred after a civilian curfew. He did not say what weapons were used.

Russian authorities in the region have urged civilians to cross to the left bank of the Dnipro River in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Agencies Via Xinhua