EU to start saving gas next week

by time news

The measure should be published in the Official Journal this Monday, August 8 and come into force the next day.

The 15% reduction in gas consumption within the EU will come into force “at the beginning of next weekto compensate for the reduction in Russian deliveries, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU announced on Friday. “The Gas Demand Reduction Regulation has been formally adopted. The text will be published in the Official Journal at the beginning of next week and will enter into force one day after its publication.“, said the presidency on its twitter account. It should be published on Monday and will come into force on Tuesday, a European diplomatic source said.

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Agreement on this measure was reached at an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers on 26 July. Only one country, Hungary, opposed this measure deemed “unjustifiable, unnecessary, unenforceable and harmfulbut unanimity was not required and the Hungarian government could not prevent its adoption.

The Twenty-Seven facing savings

The agreement calls for each country to “doeverything possibleto reduce, between August 2022 and March 2023, its gas consumption by at least 15% compared to the average of the last five years over the same period. The measure was imposed by the reduction of gas supplies by Russia, which provided until last year some 40% of gas imports from the EU.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on member states toprepare for the worst case scenarioof a cessation of gas deliveries by Russia.

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In case of «risk of serious shortage“, an alert mechanism will make “binding» for the Twenty-Seven the reduction of 15%, but this objective will be adapted to the realities of each State, in particular to the capacities to export the quantities of gas saved to the countries in need, thanks to a series of derogations. Member States must also replenish their stocks before winter.


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