The origin of the current EU energy market crisis is the manipulation of its natural gas market. Extreme gas wholesale prices are direct consequences of the withholding of Russian gas deliveries to the European market.

As extreme gas prices spill over to the EU wholesale electricity market, its functioning is also spoiled. The conclusion is that the crisis should be managed at its origin: the natural gas market. The reduction of the natural gas price on TTF can largely remedy the problems of the electricity market, therefore, an ad-hoc structural adjustment to the European electricity market model should be avoided.

To correct the abovementioned unfair situation, we propose to introduce a ‘skimming mechanism’ in the form of a new cross-border fee, added to the current regulated cross-border gas entry tariff on each MWh of pipeline gas crossing the border of the EU.