ursula von der Leyen considers “probable” a total cut of gazprom deliveries for twenty-seven. To cope with it, Brussels presented a volunteer plan, asking each of its members to reduce their consumption.
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Since he triggered hostilities by invading Ukraine, on February 24, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, led another battle – that of energy – which is played, this one, on the territory of the European Union (EU). Without ammunition or military deployment, it threatens the economic health of the old continent, the unit of the twenty-seven and could have explosive effects on the sacrosanct internal market, at the heart of community construction.
“Russia uses gas as a weapon,” repeated the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Wednesday July 20, by presenting her plan for Europeans to prepare for a winter without Russian gas. The commissioner of the internal market, Thierry Breton, for his part, spoke of “a hybrid threat from Russia”.
Gazprom deliveries to Europeans today represent less than 30 % of what they were before the war. Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark are already completely private when France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have seen their supplies largely reduced.
Thursday, July 21, the Russian giant was to complete a maintenance operation on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, but the Europeans fear that it does not take pretext for a technical problem so as not to reopen the gas tap. Moreover, on July 18, the company invoked “force majeure” to exonerate its responsibility towards massive, past and perhaps future declines, from its deliveries to Europe.
fill the reserves as much as possible
The “worst scenario”, that of a “total cut of Russian gas”, is “likely”, judge Ursula von der Leyen, who refuses to comply with the “blackmail” of the Kremlin. “Nord Stream 2 did not receive the [necessary] certifications and is not at all operational,” she warned Wednesday, while Berlin, after having procrastinated for a long time, finally gave up putting the new Gased and that Moscow could imagine forcing Germany to change their mind.
Consequently, judges Thierry Breton, the twenty -seven must “prepare” for one, even two, “winter [s] without Russian gas” – he represented last year 40 % of their imports. To do this, they must fill their gas reserves as much as possible, and set them up 64 % today (that is to say forty-six days of supply in winter) to 80 % at 1 November. Otherwise, a Gazprom cut could immerse them in recession, further increase inflation and unemployment.
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