The countries of the European Union agreed on an emergency plan in the event of a complete cessation of gas supplies from Russia. This is reported by the German agency DPA.
The agency claims countries failed to approve a single 15% cut in gas consumption, so this key clause is now voluntary. The emergency plan, which in addition to reducing consumption, includes a number of measures to save fuel and increase stocks for a successful heating season, will begin in August and will last until March 2023.
The European Commission (EC) has long been preparing a plan in case of refusal of Russian gas, EC representatives have previously admitted that they have come to terms with the cessation of supplies from Russia and are forced to prepare for the passage of winter without supplies from Russia. However, the original plan assumed a single reduction in consumption by 15% within the entire European Union, such a measure caused a wave of indignation among national governments.
Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece are an incomplete list of those who opposed such reductions in consumption. The southern countries insisted that because of the record-breaking warm summer and droughts, they received less power from hydroelectric power plants, so gas for them remains the only alternative to energy generation. Eastern European states noted that they simply had no alternatives to gas during the heating season.
Russia continues to reduce gas supplies to Europe under the pretext of "technical difficulties". On Monday, July 25, Gazprom notified the European side that it was cutting supplies by another 50% along the key supply route, the Nord Stream pipeline. Now the pipeline operates at about 20% of its real capacity and supplies only 33 million cubic meters of gas per day, with a maximum of 170 million cubic meters.
The European side is sure that the Russian company has no real reasons for reducing supplies, and Moscow is using Gazprom to blackmail and put pressure on Europe. The Russian side shifts the responsibility for the gas crisis in the EU to the European authorities and the sanctions against Russia imposed due to the invasion of Ukraine.
