After months of political bickering that has seen a dizzying succession of draft proposals, joint letters, emergency meetings and increasingly exasperated statements, the European Union on Monday approved the first-ever cap on gas prices.

EU ministers hammered out a deal on the cap during the last Energy Council of the year in Brussels.

The unprecedented measure is aimed at curbing energy prices as the bloc reels from a crisis exacerbated by Russia’s decision to stop supplying the EU with fossil fuels to retaliate against sanctions over its war in Ukraine.

The cap, as approved by ministers, will be triggered when gas prices reach €180 per megawatt-hour during at least three consecutive trading days.

This is a significant shift from the initial proposal by the European Commission which planned for the cap to be activated when gas prices reach €275/MWh for 10 consecutive days.

Prices traded last week at around €135 per megawatt-hour.

The gas cap, however, will come with stringent conditions attached and safeguards for suspension in case it backfires.

EU officials had previously described it as an instrument of “deterrence” aimed at preventing the most excessive episodes of volatility and speculation.

The cap is to apply to the Title Transfer Facility (TTF), Europe’s leading hub for gas trading, and other similar venues. The prices set every day at the TTF have a strong influence on the bills that companies and consumers receive every month.

The EU’s goal is to prevent the record-breaking surge the TTF experienced over the summer when governments rushed to pump gas into their underground storages. Prices have since then stabilised but remain high.

In case the cap leads to a drop in gas supplies, forces rationing, fuels financial instability, jeopardises existing contracts or encourages power consumption, the measure could be outright suspended by a decision of the European Commission.

The cap will exclusively apply to month-ahead contracts struck at the TTF, which represent over a fifth of the hub’s transactions but have a large influence on all gas transactions.

Such safeguards were of particular concern for countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Estonia, who have for months expressed deep scepticism regarding the price cap, arguing reliable supplies were a greater priority than affordable prices.

On the other hand, countries like Belgium, Poland, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal have insisted the price cap was an indispensable tool to combat the energy crisis and protect consumers and companies against skyrocketing bills.

Germany voted in favour of the cap on Monday while both the Netherlands and Austria abstained. Hungary voted against it.

Budapest described the cap as a “harmful, dangerous and completely unnecessary” measure and railed against the fact it required a qualified majority and not unanimity to be introduced.

“When it turns out to have been a completely unnecessary, dangerous, damaging measure for the whole of Europe, then everyone should be held responsible,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said.