Germany, Italy and Belgium to host EU leaders’ meeting on energy prices, red tape

EU leaders have been invited to a pre-summit meeting on Tuesday focused on simplification and how to tackle rising energy prices across the bloc, according to three EU diplomats. The gathering, which is hosted by Germany, Belgium and Italy, will take place via video conference and is designed to lay the groundwork for the next European Council, which takes place March 19. Tuesday's meeting will be attended by a "double digit" number of EU leaders, one of the diplomats said. It wasn't clear which leaders had confirmed their attendance as of Monday evening. While cutting red tape has long been a priority for governments, a sudden surge in energy prices has sent EU leaders scrambling for ways to avert a full-blown crisis. The price of a barrel of oil broke the $100 mark on Monday as the war in the Middle East — sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran — entered its second week. The finance ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. held talks on Monday to coordinate a possible release of strategic oil reserves to head off the prospect of an inflation shock rocking the world economy. Germany, Belgium and Italy also previously hosted a get-together to align their positions and set the agenda ahead of February's European Council in Alden Biesen, which focused on cutting red tape for businesses. After that EU leaders' summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would present an action plan for how to bolster the bloc's economy at the March meeting.