Draghi leads push for common EU response to energy crisis

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Draghi has hosted a huddle of leaders from three fellow Mediterranean countries to push for a common European response to the energy crisis that has been worsened by war in Ukraine. The prime ministers of Spain and Portugal participated in person in the meeting Friday in Rome, while Greece’s premier, who is positive for COVID-19, joined in by video hookup. The four leaders said they agreed to press for the European Union to urgently forge a common policy on energy, whose prices were already soaring before Russia began the war last month. Draghi has been pushing for a strategy of EU-wide stockpiling of energy, plus a cap on prices.