Tripartite meeting ends with «historic» agreement: gas price to grow no more than 15% of the current level

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel announced that the agreement had been reached.

The contract has not yet been officially signed. However, the parties agreed to form a package of measures to support households and businesses. Many departments have yet to agree on the details before the project goes into effect, but it’s a start.

The most important decision of the meeting the official state intervention into the price policy for energy carriers. From now on, the gas price growth will be limited to 15% of the current level. The price of fuel oil should be reduced by 15 cents per liter, and electricity bills should be completely frozen. These structural changes will come into force on October 1.

In addition, VAT in some categories will be reduced by 1%. According to Energy Minister Claude Tourmes, this will make electricity more attractive than gas or fuel oil.

The cost of such manipulations will be about 1 billion euros. However, Statec predicts a decrease in inflation, which will allow for just two index tranches instead of the expected four.

All parties note that the negotiations were difficult. However, the unions finally achieved what they could not do at the last meeting — an index policy fixed legislatively.