Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union address to a European Union that is in a right old state. Soaring energy bills are straining voters’ tolerance of member governments. These have a history of disagreeing on pilchard quotas. But they can probably get behind €140bn of windfall taxes proposed by the European Commission president.
Transferring profits from generators to needy households is politically popular. Unfortunately, the proposed amount looks small compared with the potential need. A UK energy support scheme has an estimated cost of £150bn.
Capping the price paid for gas imports would be an obvious move. But it is mired in controversy. Germany and Italy fear Russia would completely cut off supplies. In the meanwhile, here are three things the EU should do to ease the financial pain of a cold winter.