Europe should club together on gas purchasing, IEA says

European countries would improve their negotiating position on gas prices if they were to club together around a common purchase mechanism, the managing director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.

"I think it is a very good idea," Fatih Birol told Sándor Zsiros on the Global Conversation. "If the European countries come together and make their muscles even stronger and emerge as a strong buyers. It will help them to outcompete some of the other LNG buyers."

But Birol said price caps would only be useful if they didn't damage Europe's competitiveness on the market.

"One of the reasons why we in Europe were successful this year was we paid more money than the other buyers and we could get the LNG here," he said. "If we put the price cap too low, then our competitive power will be much less. Therefore, putting a price cap which is good enough to compete with other buyers but at the same time have to protect the consumers would be a good idea."

The IEA is an intergovernmental organisation that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the energy sector.

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: First of all, I would like to know your opinion about the energy crisis in Europe because many people would like to see whether or not the end of this crisis is any time soon. So what is your opinion?

Fatih Birol, Managing Director, International Energy Agency: So we are in the middle of the first truly global energy crisis. Our world has never, ever witnessed an energy crisis with this depth and with this complexity. The reason is very simple. Russia, the country that invaded Ukraine, is the largest energy exporter in the world. And this invasion of Russia sparked a major energy crisis. And Europe is at the epicentre of it because a