EU fails to agree upon bloc's reform on electricity

Energy ministers from the European Union's 27 member states failed to agree on the bloc's electricity market reform during their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday due to disagreements over subsidies for backup coal power generation and the lifetime extension of existing nuclear power plants.

The reform, put forward by the European Commission in March, aims to avoid a repeat of last year's energy crisis, when EU consumers suffered from soaring energy bills.

The reform seeks to lower consumer bills by relying less on short-term markets and promoting instead long-term contracts with renewable energy producers providing electricity at lower costs.