EU approves Italian mechanism against energy price hikes

Brussels has given its consent to the measure contained in the energy bills decree with which the Italian executive intends to limit the effect of gas price hikes on the formation of electricity prices. According to reports, the intervention should cut energy costs for Italian households and businesses by about 25%.

The preliminary agreement provides for an energy cost control mechanism inspired by the Spanish model, with conditions described as temporary and precise. A central element concerns financing: according to the conditionalities that will have to be incorporated into the final text, only the consumers who benefit from it will contribute to the cost of the measure, not general taxation.

The Minister for European Affairs Tommaso Foti claimed the result as the outcome of the government’s negotiating line in Brussels. Along the same lines, Brothers of Italy MEP Nicola Procaccini stated:

“Giorgia Meloni imposes Italy’s line in negotiations with the European Commission” — Nicola Procaccini, Brothers of Italy MEP

The measure comes on the same day that, in Brussels, European leaders were separately discussing the line on sanctions against Russia and Ukraine’s request for additional funds for 2027: three distinct dossiers from the same summit, which affect the Italian government specifically on the front of domestic energy costs.

It remains to be seen how the announced conditionalities will be defined in practice — who falls among the beneficiary consumers, and according to what criteria the contribution to financing the mechanism will be calculated — elements that the final wording of the agreement has yet to clarify. The definitive text, once adopted, will also clarify the timing of the measure’s entry into force and its actual duration, aspects that are currently indicated as provisional in the agreement reached at the European Council level.