BRUSSELS – European Union leaders who had been reluctant to agree on a uniform price cap for natural gas whose costs exploded astronomically after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are close to setting a limit, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

Speaking ahead of talks in Brussels on how to deal with the soaring energy prices that required his government to pay 90 percent of electric bills for households and help businesses, he said it looks like a cap is coming.

“I hope that after many months of consultation we will be able to finalize our decisions either today (Dec. 15) or next Monday (Dec. 19) at the latest,” Mitsotakis said as he arrived at the meeting, said Reuters.

“We are close to being able to impose a ceiling on the price of natural gas … I believe that, one way or another, we will find the necessary majorities in order to move in this direction,” he also said.

Mitsotakis added it was “absolutely necessary” that Europe “sends clear signal to the markets that it is not going to allow the instrumentalization of natural gas by Russia,” which supplies the bloc up to 40 percent of its needs.

He had been been pushing the EU to do something but there has been hemming and hawing for months about what to do even as worries grew that Russia – whose energy supplies were exempted from sanctions – would turn off the flow in winter.