European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that 12 EU countries are completely or partially deprived of Russian gas, adding that “Moscow’s behavior in recent weeks has exacerbated the risks.”
“The crisis has been severe since early last fall, but Russia’s behavior in recent weeks has greatly exacerbated the risks,” Simsson said in a statement to the Estonian newspaper Postemis.
She explained that “the EU crisis plan, which was prepared at the beginning of the year, can be useful at any moment, and member states must be ready to implement their plans.”
Simson said that last week the European Union reached an agreement to increase gas supplies with Israel and Egypt and expand cooperation with Norway, while direct negotiations with Azerbaijan are at the final stage.
According to her, “big disagreements” between energy ministers are caused by issues related to the activities of the electricity market, as well as the expansion of nuclear energy.
The European official pointed out that “the Commission cannot decide on this matter and that the choice of energy sources in accordance with the main European treaties is the sovereign right of the Member States.”
She added that the discussion of these issues, which began on Monday in the EU, “is very important that the EU can meet the winter in unity and with the utmost readiness.”
At the end of May, Russian gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands stopped due to their refusal to accept the new settlement system proposed by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 9 that countries that refused to pay for Russian gas under the new rules had already cut off gas supplies to them.
On June 14, Gazprom announced that it was forced to cut gas supplies through the Nord Stream gas pipelines for technical reasons.
Source: Interfax