Draghi criticises Germany’s €200-billion energy rescue shield. Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his likely successor have criticised Germany’s 200-billion-euro move to shield its citizens from rising energy prices, saying Europe must act together

12 comments

  1. *Diplomats mentioned two immediate problems: First, Germany’s mega subsidy scheme risks exacerbating the gas price crisis for other EU countries (since Germany can outbid others on the gas market, leading to an increase in market prices). Second, the subsidy will inevitably drive a wedge between richer and poorer EU countries.*

    *Germany will not just subsidize gas for its consumers, but also for companies, big and small. This means companies can produce at cheaper prices in Germany, while poorer EU countries face the prospect of de-industrialization through no fault of their own. At the same time, Berlin is opposing European-level measures in Brussels, such as an EU gas price cap.*

  2. # eUroPe MuSt AcT tOgEtHeR

    so where is your shield, removal of merit order and/or energy price caps, dear EU? didnt you have more than 6 months already to deliver?

    i remember how they pumped billions of our taxes within a blink of an eye into the a**es of bankers and speculants in 2008, now they fail to deliver anything useful for us, the normal citizens.

    the consequence is that were getting poorer and poorer and right-wing parties, which just want to destroy everything we achieved within the last 80 years, become more powerful in parallel.

  3. The sin of Envy returns to Europe after a hiatus, I was listening to a European commenter on Youtube who claimed that there is no Envy among Europeans like Asians and Africans have due to their low-trust societies. Guess what lack of resources, wars, an economic crisis and richer nations looking out for themselves and closing the gate on others is fertile ground for envy, it won’t rear it head until few more years when the consequences of constant unequal bailouts which will bring about Envy and create a low-trust society even in the same country.

  7. Maybe we wouldn’t be here if the EU had the competency to achieve meaningful reforms without 6+ months of negotiations. But we all love our national sovereignty very much. Most of the time.

  8. Certainly, the path of action taken was suboptimal, it should have been handeled in coordination with EU partners. However, it feels important to point out that both the ability and the percieved necessity to do this alone follow from the utter lack of reform and act-ability the EU has shown. It is in those moments where our unity is the most necessary and would be the most beneficial, where issues like veto rights and the weak position of the EP come back to bite us the most.

    If you see this as necessary, recognize the issues that made it so. If you see this as selfish, recognise the reforms necessary to make common action possible. We need to be able to act as one if we are going to demand it of one another, as we absolutely should. But that means we will need to abandon the primacy of the member state governments over the people.

  9. South European countries trying to squeeze some money from the North again… Meanwhile they run high deficits and refuse to adapt their Burgundian lifestyle.

  10. Don’t you just hate when you are having dinner with your pals and the greedy one who stuffed his gut full while you had some salad and breadsticks wants to share the bill equally?

  12. This reminds me of the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Germany has saved during the good times to be able to survive the bad times, but is being savaged by the grasshoppers that have behaved frivolously over the summer.

Leave a Reply