Criza gazelor naturale din Europa. Cauze ale aparitiei si evolutia acesteia

Although the war in Ukraine is far from over, currently the natural gas market in Europe is in a state of "apparent calm" as a result, mainly, of the (rather) quick and (somewhat) determined reaction of the Brussels authorities, which aimed to mitigate the consequences of the sudden and uncontrolled increase in natural gas prices. Starting from these considerations, the article aims to carry out an analysis of the causes that led to the emergence of the natural gas crisis, as well as the evolution of their prices at the European level. Thus, the paper extensively studies how natural gas prices have evolved and the effects on the market induced by these developments, on the one hand, as well as how the European Union, as a whole, and the Member States, at the national level, reacted to protect the population, first of all, in the face of the wave of price increases registered as a result of the rapid and economically unjustified increase in the prices of natural gas and, implicitly, of energy. As it is clear that high gas and energy prices are harming EU consumers, whether they are families or businesses, urgent and necessary coordinated measures at the EU level were needed to protect consumers from increased costs; and these aspects were presented in detail in the paper.