The EU Commission is calling on the member states to save 15 percent on gas over the next eight months. If that doesn’t work or if the situation deteriorates, she wants to take coercive measures.
In times of crisis, only unreliability is reliable. A day before Nord Stream-1, the pipeline that recently delivered most of the gas from Russia to the West in addition to the lines through Ukraine, was to go back into operation after maintenance, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced possible further supply reductions. The EU Commission in Brussels is already expecting a total failure and that the gas crisis could last two winters. The countermeasures presented on Wednesday are dramatic and range from switching to alternatives such as coal and nuclear energy to temporarily capping consumption. In an emergency regulation, the EU Commission wants to have direct interventions in the member states approved. “We must prepare for a possible total disruption of Russian gas supplies,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.