Due to the high prices of energy resources, difficult times lie ahead - Dombrovskis

RIGA - Due to the high prices of energy resources, a difficult time is ahead, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis (New Unity) said in an interview with Latvian Television on Wednesday.

At the same time, he also informed that at the European Union (EU) level, it is planned to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas, at least temporarily.

"It is clear that there is a difficult time ahead. Energy prices remain very high, and this is also the main driving force of overall inflation. Therefore, at the EU level, we are also currently deciding how to review the price formation mechanism, for example, in the electricity sector," said Dombrovskis .

He pointed out that currently the price of electricity is linked to the price of natural gas, but the price of natural gas is very high, including due to various manipulations carried out by Russia and Gazprom.

"The idea is to at least temporarily decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas, so in fact to carry out some kind of reform of the European electricity market in order to reduce these prices," said Dombrovskis.

At the same time, he also noted that in connection with the high prices of energy resources, it is necessary to think about support measures for entrepreneurs and residents. Among other things, he pointed out that the Latvian government has already made a series of decisions in this area.

Dombrovskis also emphasized that it is necessary to move away from dependence on Russian fossil energy resources. He added that some EU funding is also available for countries to implement various measures to stop dependence on Russian energy resources.