The nations of the European Union decided on Tuesday to ration gas this winter in order to safeguard themselves from future supply cutbacks by Russia as Moscow continues its invasion of Ukraine.
A new European law intended to reduce the demand for gas by 15% from August through March was agreed by EU energy ministers.
The new law calls for optional national actions to cut gas usage, and if such steps don’t save enough money, it sets off mandatory steps for the 27-member bloc.
The move was applauded by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who said that “the EU has taken a bold step to face down the danger of a full gas interruption by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the gas trade to undermine the EU’s opposition to the war in Ukraine have grown since Russian energy giant Gazprom announced on Monday that it will restrict deliveries to the EU through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20 percent of capacity.
Jozef Sikela, the minister of industry in the Czech Republic, whose portfolio of policies includes energy, said, “The winter is approaching, but we don’t know how cold it will be.”
But Putin will continue to play his nefarious games by abusing and extorting gas supplies, that much is certain.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, which the West condemned with economic penalties, Russian gas deliveries to 12 EU members have been stopped or reduced.
The EU has decided against placing sanctions on Russian natural gas because Germany, Italy, and several other member states substantially rely on these imports, even though it has agreed to embargo oil and coal from Russia beginning later this year.
With Europe’s inflation already at record highs, the disruptions in Russian energy trade with the EU are threatening to send the region into recession just as it was emerging from a pandemic-induced slump.
The energy crunch is also bringing back for Europe long-forgotten political issues of policy coordination.
While the EU now has centralised control over monetary, trade, antitrust, and agricultural policy, national sovereignty still generally governs in energy-related areas.