German consumers should prepare themselves for drastic price increases in the electricity and of heating gas, if the European Union prohibit imports gas from Russia, the CEO of E.ON warns today, adding that prices are already rising rapidly even before such an embargo is decided.
In statements to the German RND Group's publications, Philip Ton stresses that his company is already seeing wholesale gas prices twentyfold and electricity prices eightfold higher this spring than a year earlier.
How much prices will rise in the event of an embargo on Russian gas will depend on whether Germany can increase its reserves, currently at 25 to 27% of capacity, ahead of the coming winter, Mr Ton estimates.
«The situation is very tense, and deliveries have not even stopped,» Mr Ton underlines in the RND Group's publications.
E.ON's CEO calls on the German state to offer more support to households to cushion the blow, for example by reducing taxes on bills.
After years of prosperity thanks to energy imports from Russia, there is an intense debate in Germany about how to end the bilateral partnership that critics say finances the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Russia covers 40% of Europe's gas needs.
Germany's finance minister, Christian Lindner, yesterday rejected on Monday the possibility that the EU might immediately move to impose an embargo on Russian gas imports, even though allegations of hundreds of civilian deaths and war crimes in Ukraine are escalating the pressure on the 27 to impose sanctions on Russia's energy sector.
