EUROPE is gripped by one of the worst energy crunches in history, forcing politicians to step in as soaring prices threaten to leave millions of households unable to pay their bills.

But with market forces signaling that the crisis will last way beyond the winter, the dilemma facing leaderships is that their stopgap measures are unlikely to be enough. The cost of electricity and gas across the continent already looks like one of the biggest challenges facing nations as they navigate their way out of the pandemic.

Ministers in the five biggest European economies — Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain — have so far come up with a patchwork of grants and time-limited tax cuts to help consumers heat and power their homes. The common thread seems to be to hope the problem goes away while also leaning more on companies. Electricite de France SA shares plummeted by a record Friday as the French Government confirmed plans to force the company to sell more power at a hefty discount.

Gas more than tripled last year and energy companies, analysts and traders all say that high prices are set to persist, already a key driver of now rampant inflation. Contracts have eased from their peak, yet the weather may still get colder. There’s also mounting tension with Russia over a possible invasion of Ukraine, which could disrupt vital supplies.

“The scale of the crisis makes government measures insufficient to cover all impacts across the economy,” said Simone Tagliapietra, a fellow at European economic thinktank Bruegel. “The longer this situation persists, the more governments will be forced to target their support towards specific segments of society — a difficult triage, both economically and politically.”(SD-Agencies)