In the event of a shortage, this objective would become binding. But several countries have negotiated derogations.
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Stay united against Vladimir Putin. Do not give it the satisfaction of appearing divided, while Moscow plays with their nerves, by opening and closing, in turn, the gas tap. Tuesday, July 26, the twenty-seven managed not to set off, while their energy ministers met in Brussels to speak of the highly flammable subject of energy security. Better still, they have managed to agree to reduce their gas consumption in a coordinated manner, in order to fill their stocks as much as possible and to better prepare for a winter without Russian hydrocarbon.
This agreement provides for a double relaxation device. First of all, between the 1 er August and March 31, 2023, each Member State will have to do its possible to reduce its gas consumption by at least 15 % compared to the last of the five years over this same period. In a second step, in the event of a serious shortage, the state of alert may be triggered by decision of the member states (by qualified majority) and this objective will become binding, so that a solidarity mechanism between the twenty -Sept.
This is for the general framework, which corresponds more or less to that which the commission had drawn, on July 20, when it had presented its battle plan for a winter without Russian gas. For the rest, the twenty-seven have largely amended and somewhat weakened the Brussels project, by multiplying the derogations.
Russian deliveries already decreasing
In record time, less than a week, “the European Union [EU] has taken a decisive measure to deal with the threat of a total interruption of gas deliveries by Putin,” said Ursula, however Von der Leyen, the president of the committee on Tuesday. In fact, this agreement, even imperfect, lays down the basics of an action coordinated between the twenty -seven in an area – energy – which is strict national sovereignty and on which the member states are jealously watching.
In his own way, Gazprom helped them get along, announcing, on Monday, that he would reduce his deliveries on Wednesday via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. After ten days of maintenance, he had resumed a reduced service on July 21. “One day, Gazprom increases his deliveries, the other, he reduces them. In doing so, Moscow tries to divide us, he will not succeed,” commented Claude Turmes, the Minister of Luxembourg Energy.
Despite these jolts worthy of a Chinese torture, the trend is clearly downward. Since February 24 and the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has continued to reduce its gas deliveries to twenty-seven, feeding a priced flambé which allows it to continue to finance its war, everything By rationing the European allies of kyiv: they today represent less than third of what they were then. Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark are already deprived of this when France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have seen their supplies largely reduced.
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