European leaders have been quick to condemn Germany’s bumper energy package, claiming that Berlin’s decision to go it alone puts households and companies in the rest of the bloc at risk of paying higher energy prices.
Mario Draghi, Italy’s outgoing prime minister, has said the €200bn package, unveiled last week, undermines unity. “Faced with the common threats of our times, we cannot divide ourselves according to the space in our national budgets,” he said.
France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire and his Irish counterpart, eurogroup chair Paschal Donohoe, have echoed Draghi’s calls for a more co-ordinated response. They were joined on Wednesday by Ursula von der Leyen, the EU commission president, who has called for a bloc-wide ceiling on the price of gas — a measure Germany has objected to.