Some of Olaf Scholz's EU colleagues said the plan, which aims to protect consumers and businesses from gas price hikes, threatens bloc solidarity, risks distorting energy markets and could disrupt cross-border flows of electricity and natural gas..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Scholz pointed to similar - albeit much smaller - proposals from other national governments and said that the planned funding for Germany would be rolled out gradually through yet to be determined measures until 2024.. Critics should also note that his country's role in the EU's gross domestic product is too large, the chancellor said..

“There is hardly a country that does not take such measures,” he told reporters in Prague on Friday after a two-day summit of European leaders..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Energy crisis calls for EU states to stick together.

Earlier this week, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton and Paolo Gentiloni, the bloc's head of economics, sounded the alarm about the said plan.. They argued that the energy crisis requires EU states to stick together, including by issuing common guaranteed debt obligations similar to those during the Covid pandemic..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Last week, Scholz unveiled a plan to keep electricity and natural gas prices down.. The Social Democratic chancellor said the new off-budget stabilization fund would allow for action to put a 'big protective umbrella' over Europe's virtually largest economy.

[see_also ids\u003d"

Debt obligations to reduce energy prices.

Scholz dodged questions about whether Germany would support another round of jointly issued EU debt to fund energy price cuts in the bloc as a whole.. At the same time, he pointed to still unused loans and grants from the EU Pandemic Recovery Fund..

“Therefore, many more resources are available,” he said..

The issue of limiting energy exports from the Russian Federation has been actively discussed in the EU for several weeks, and there is still no unanimity on what decision to take. Paul Krugman, an American economist and Nobel Prize winner in 2008, clearly stated that Vladimir Putin's war of conquest is waged with money received by Russia from the sale of fossil fuels to Europe.. “And while Ukraine has repelled Russia’s attempt to seize Kyiv in an incredible way, Putin will not be finally stopped until Europe ends energy dependence,” he said..

Read about the relationship between the energy market and war in the article by the President of the Center for Global Studies " UA by Mikhail Gonchar Europe in Russia's energy trap: how to overcome addiction?