The European Union decided on Tuesday (26th) to reduce gas consumption in order to be less dependent on Russia, which announced a new cut in supplies to Europe and launched “major” bombings in southern Ukraine.
“It was not an impossible task! Ministers [da Energia dos 27 Estados-membros] The Czech Presidency, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, announced on Twitter that a political agreement has been reached on reducing gas demand for the coming winter.
Faced with the threat of an energy crisis fueled by Russian gas cuts, the ministers met in Brussels to adopt an austerity plan proposed by the Commission last week. While the outlines remain the same, the content has been drastically changed.
The approved document stipulates that each country will do “everything possible” to reduce gas consumption by at least 15% between August 2022 and March 2023, compared to the average of the last five years of the same period.
In the event of a “serious risk of famine” a mechanism will mandate this reduction, but the target will be adapted to the realities of each country through a series of exemptions.
On Monday, Russian state-owned company Gazprom announced that it will reduce gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to 33 million cubic meters per day from Wednesday. This figure represents about 20% of the pipeline capacity.
Russia claims a turbine needs maintenance, but Western countries accuse Moscow of using its energy as a “weapon” in response to sanctions passed on February 24 for the invasion of Ukraine.
After a five-month conflict that left thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people, Russia continues to bombard the east and south of the region where its attacks are concentrated.
Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday condemned a series of attacks near the port of Odessa and in the town of Mykolaiv, both on the Black Sea coast.
Putin’s “Blackmail”
“The EU stands in unity and solidarity,” Czech Energy Minister Jozef Sikela said in Brussels. said.
His Luxembourg counterpart, Claude Turmes, said reducing gas consumption was “the best way to combat Putin’s gas blackmail”.
He said that of the 27 member states, Hungary was the only one to oppose the text.
“This is an unfair, useless, impracticable and harmful proposal,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters.
The 15% drop in gas consumption raised concerns in some member states, including Poland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal, which criticized the fact that it did not take into account the specifics of each.
Spanish Minister of Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera denounced an “unfair” and “ineffective” plan for a country where the memory of the austerity plans imposed by Berlin after the 2008 financial crisis is still vivid.
The energy-saving plan aims to combine efforts in an emergency, particularly to help Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas and whose industry is closely linked to those across the EU.
“If the chemical industry in Germany coughs, the entire European industry may stall,” warned French Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
German Minister Robert Habeck voiced his country’s mea culpa, saying, “Germany made a strategic mistake in not changing its dependence on Moscow in the past, and the government is working to change that.”
Until last year, about 40% of EU gas imports came from Russia.
“Big” bombings
On land, the Russian offensive continues. Ukrainian authorities reported on Tuesday that there were “massive” Russian bombings in the south near the ports of Odessa and Mykolaiv.
“In Odessa, residential buildings in coastal areas were hit without loss of life, according to initial reports,” the army said in a Facebook post.
The Armed Forces also reported bombing attacks further east in the Mykolaiv area, which “targeted the port infrastructure”.
Mykolaiv regional governor Vitali Kim also reported on Tuesday that there were “major bombings” in the city.
These new attacks follow each other on Saturday, just one day after the signing of an agreement between Kyiv and Moscow to export grain through “safe corridors” across the Black Sea in Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port.
The attack sparked a wave of condemnation and cast doubt on the possibility of implementing the historic UN-sponsored agreement with Turkey’s mediation. On Monday, Kyiv made sure to expect to resume exports “this week”.
In the east, three civilians have been killed in the Donetsk region in the last 24 hours, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
According to the same source, Toretsk, Avdivka, Márinka and Krasnogórivka were also bombed on Tuesday morning in this region, which together with Luhansk forms Donbass. The official also reported attacks in Bakhmut and Sloviansk.
source: Noticias
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