The European Commission published a plan Wednesday that aims to reduce gas consumption in the European Union by 15% by March next year. The proposal is a response to the increased risk of energy rationing in the region due to reduced supply from Russia.
If approved, the target will be voluntary, but the regulation will include a provision that could mandate actions in the event of a serious supply disruption.
The program is expected to run from August 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022. According to Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, the goal will be to save 45 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
Concerns over the energy picture have increased this month after Russia halted Gazprom’s activities on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.
Retaliation
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia deliberately reduced gas supplies to the EU in retaliation for the bloc’s sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine. “Russia is blackmailing us by using energy as a weapon,” he said.
Von der Leyen also said that the reduction in gas supplies has hit 12 EU countries and that a complete cutoff of Russian gas supplies is a “likely scenario”.
decline in GDP
A final total cut in gas supply from Russia would cut the European Union’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by up to 1.5%, European Union Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said on Wednesday.
At the press conference where he announced his proposal for a 15% cut in gas consumption across the bloc, Simson warned that commodity reserves would fall to low levels if reduction targets were not ambitious. “It would have been impossible to increase them before the cold season,” he explained.
At the same press conference, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that 12 countries in the bloc have already been affected by a reduction in Russian gas supplies.
source: Noticias
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