The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a new plan to cut member states’ natural gas consumption by 15 percent, in preparation for the possibility that Russia drastically cuts or even cuts off gas supplies to Europe. The plan presented by President Ursula von der Leyen, which still has to be approved by the representatives of the member states, stipulates that each member state of 1 average of the consumption recorded in the same period between 2016 and 2021.
The Commission also asked for the possibility of issuing an “alert” in the event of an impending serious gas shortage or exceptionally high demand. This “alert” would make it mandatory for all member countries to temporarily reduce gas consumption until the end of the emergency.
The commission’s plan was unveiled a day ahead of the scheduled reopening of Nord Stream, the main link carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe, which has been shut down for scheduled maintenance since last week. However, over the past few days, the hypothesis has been gaining ground that on Thursday, when these operations end, Russia could decide to permanently block gas transport to Europe.
Russia is upgrading its gas supplies.
We must now prepare for further disruptions – including a complete halt to Russian gas supplies.
Today we are presenting the “Save fuel for a safe winter” package. It will help us save 15% of annual gas consumption. ⬇️
– European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) July 20, 2022