by Daniel ARONSSOHN / Alex PIGMAN
EU ministers debated Tuesday how to reduce gas consumption this winter, an act of solidarity for Germany and a response to Russia’s manipulation of supplies as an economic weapon.
The plan, under discussion in Brussels, could see exceptions and carve-outs as European Union countries blanched at making too deep a sacrifice for Berlin and a few landlocked member states.
Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, is hugely dependent on Russian gas and remains at the mercy of the supply from Gazprom for the years still needed to find alternative sources.
“It is true that Germany… with its dependence on Russian gas… has made a strategic mistake but our government is working… to correct this,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said as he arrived.
“It’s not only a German problem, it’s a central-eastern European problem. We have to solve it together.”
France said showing solidarity to Berlin would help all of Europe, even though Germany takes a major share of the 40 percent of EU gas imports that came from Russia last year.
“Our industrial chains are completely interdependent: if the chemical industry in Germany coughs, the whole of European industry could come to a halt,” said French minister for energy transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
The plan under consideration would ask member states to voluntarily reduce gas use by 15 percent starting next month and over the subsequent winter through March.
Czech industry minister Jozef Sikela, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the plan would deliver a strong answer to state-run Gazprom’s plan to cut gas deliveries to Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “will continue to play his dirty games in misusing and blackmailing gas supplies,” Sikela said.
Gazprom has said it is cutting daily gas deliveries to about 20 percent of capacity from Wednesday.
The Gazprom cut to its main pipeline, he said, “is just an additional… proof that we have to take the game in our hands and we have to reduce the dependencies on Russian supplies as soon as possible”.
– ‘Wise strategy’ –
The EU member countries have already flatly rejected an earlier European Commission proposal to give Brussels the power to impose gas use cuts in an emergency.
They want the 27 member states — and not the Brussels-based EU executive — to decide on when and how to implement binding objectives.
And the 15-percent target would also be adapted to the situation of each country thanks to a series of exemptions, taking into account their level of stocks and whether or not they have pipelines to share gas.
Some member states are concerned that the exceptions will dilute the effort but, arriving at the meeting, EU commissioner for energy, Kadri Simson, said Brussels was now confident of at least a political agreement.
“Nobody challenges the need for solidarity, but the means of solidarity can be very different and the initial proposal was not necessarily the most effective approach,” said Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera Rodriguez.
Exceptions are now planned for island states such as Ireland, Cyprus or Malta and countries, such as Spain or Portugal, with limited links to the interconnected gas supply grid.
Russian gas giant Gazprom said Monday tha it was halting the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the “technical condition of the engine”, but Simson dismissed this claim.
“We know that there is no technical reason to do so,” she said.
“This is a politically motivated step and we have to be ready for that and exactly for that reason the pre-emptive reduction of our gas demand is a wise strategy.”
© Agence France-Presse
