brussels sept 7 reuters  surging energy costs are increasing the number of europes small and medium sized businesses at risk of collapse and european union action to cap prices would to help them survive top officials from the eus sme association said on wednesday russia has cut energy supplies to europe in retaliation for western sanctions imposed on moscow over its invasion of ukraine sending prices skyrocketing russia blames those sanctions for causing the gas supply problems which it puts down to pipeline faults smeunited president petri salminen said retail companies he spoke to in finland were facing jump in energy bills from 1000 euros a month to 10000 euros a month making it hard for businesses to remain viable this is a fear that is rising among entrepreneurs across europe the problem has been there since spring but now it is getting worse salminen told reuters in an interview gerhard huemer smeunited director of economic and fiscal policy said that normally around 5 of companies went bust every year now the percentage of firms at risk of collapse was up to 11 in finland and 16 in spain while 24 of companies in belgium were already making a loss these are companies that may not survive the next period small and mediumsized enterprises smes represent 99 of all businesses in the 27nation eu they employ around 100 million people or two thirds of all employed and account for 53 of europe’s gdp the european commission on wednesday proposed a price cap on russian gas a mandatory eu cut in electricity use and a ceiling on the revenue of nongas power generators to try to soften the impact of the price surge read more a european solution would be the most efficient to avoid meddling with market mechanisms on the electricity market but when it comes to subsidising households then national solutions are the best salminen said we would encourage all eu member states to use the room available to decrease energy costs he said huemer said that if russian gas deliveries stop altogether energy prices would rise further making some form of government or eu support a must one idea would be to compensate companies for 80 of their average energy consumption at prices from before the ukraine war and let them pay the rest at market prices as an incentive to cut energy consumption and increase efficiency he said