Faced with drastic reductions in Russian gas deliveries, the agreement concluded at the end of July by the Twenty-Seven to voluntarily reduce their consumption comes into force on Tuesday, after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU on Monday.
The text provides that each Member State “do everything possible” to reduce, between August 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023, its gas consumption by at least 15% compared to the average of the last five years over the same period. , through “voluntary reduction measures”.
In the event of a “risk of serious shortage”, the European Council (body representing the Member States) may, on a proposal from the Commission, declare a state of alert.
This mechanism will make the 15% reduction “binding”, but this objective will be adapted to the realities of each State, in particular the capacity to export the quantities of gas saved to countries in need, and therefore provides for a series of derogations.
To allow precise monitoring, each State will have to “update its national emergency plan (…) no later than October 31, 2022”.
A reduction now in European consumption should help the States to speed up the reconstitution of their gas stocks before winter.
Agreement on this text was reached at an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers on 26 July.
Only one country, Hungary, opposed this measure which it considers “unjustifiable, useless, inapplicable and harmful”, but unanimity was not required and the Hungarian government was unable to prevent its adoption.
Europeans are seeking to wean themselves off Russian gas, which until last year accounted for some 40% of gas imports from the EU.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has accused Moscow of using the gas “as a weapon”, called on member states to “prepare for the worst-case scenario” of a cessation of gas deliveries by the Russia.
Russian energy giant Gazprom recently accused EU sanctions against Moscow of blocking the return of a Siemens turbine, sent to Canada for maintenance and essential to ensuring the smooth operation of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
The Commission denounced this argument while the gas sector and Gazprom as well as its bank are not targeted by Western sanctions. A third of European purchases of Russian gas are transported by Nord Stream 1, the flow rate of which has been drastically reduced over the past two months.