After Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal, it is France which opposed certain measures of the European Commission’s proposal on gas discussed this Tuesday, July 26 at the European Council, reports the daily italian curator The paper.
On a voluntary basis, the Twenty-Seven are invited to reduce their gas consumption by 15% over the next eight months. The objective is in particular to anticipate a total closure of the tap of Gazprom next autumn. In the event of serious shortages, an emergency mechanism would make these measures binding.
France, however, opposed a “uniform” reduction because its objectives “would not be adapted to everyone’s reality”, according to the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who specified that Paris wanted an agreement “which enacts the principle of a coordinated reduction in gas consumption but which at the same time takes account of the particular situations of each Member State, and in particular of our gas export capacity”.
“France has no gas supply problem: it depends only a little on Russia (20%), unlike Germany (55%), and it has also just signed a very advantageous agreement with the United Arab Emirates to import natural gas and limit the consequences of the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine”, specifies the Italian daily.
While emphasizing the need for “solidarity” European Union, in particular with Germany, France assured that it does not have the material and technical means to export 15% of its gas to Germany, because it is dependent on the size of the existing pipelines. The country assured that it would do its best to support its neighbors, specifies The paper.
With its energy sobriety plan, “the French government is already making arrangements so as not to be taken unawares in the perspective of a winter that promises to be difficult”.