Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi is set to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday to discuss how to mitigate the continent’s dependence on Russian gas supplies, according to a Corriere della Sera interview with Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani.
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“We’ll go to Brussels to review a possible price-cap mechanism on Russian energy supplies, that means a price above which European operators cannot buy,” Cingolani said.
The fear of disruptions in flows is generating extra-profits for Gazprom, and this is to the detriment of everyone, he added.
Italy imports almost all its gas, about 40 percent is coming from Russia. With European prices for the fuel up 60 percent so far this year, the country is facing a cost-of-living crisis amid record inflation.
Italy is working on a plan that could make it independent from Russian gas supplies in two to three years, Cingolani said in the interview.
The country is keen to boost imports from countries such as Azerbaijan and Algeria, Draghi told lawmakers in Rome this month.
In time, it also wants to double the capacity of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in the Adriatic Sea, expand import capacity for liquefied natural gas and drive up the use of renewables.
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