There is a fundamental distortion in the energy market of south-eastern Europe, Mitsotakis stated to the Financial Times. "Something isn’t working right. I don’t expect immediate solutions, but at least let someone deal with it," he noted.

Mitsotakis has called on Brussels to urgently tackle a "prolonged crisis" of capacity that has driven prices to such extreme levels that it requires an urgent "political response."

Greece has warned that Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure contributed to electricity prices more than doubling this summer in south-east Europe, underlining the vulnerabilities of EU energy markets.

In a letter to European Commission seen by the Financial Times, Mitsotakis called on Ursula von der Leyen to use her second five-year term as commission president to "take up the task of pushing through more cross-border capacity" to avoid such spikes in future.

Mitsotakis also requested better oversight of the electricity market, which he called "an incomprehensible black box - even to experts."