European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni assured on Saturday that the European Union was “well prepared” in the event of a total stoppage of Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage and energy saving measures.
“We are well prepared to resist Russia’s extreme use of the gas weapon,” he told reporters at the economic forum organized by The European House – Ambrosetti in Cernobbio, on the Lake Como, Italy.
“We are not afraid of Putin’s decisions, we ask the Russians to respect the contracts, but if they don’t, we are ready to react”, he underlined.
Moscow turns off the tap
The Russian giant Gazprom announced on Friday that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, linking Russia to northern Germany, which was to resume service this Saturday after a three-day interruption for maintenance operations, would finally be “completely” stopped until to the repair of a turbine, without specifying a deadline.
Moscow was thus reacting to the decision announced Friday by the G7 countries to target Russia’s energy windfall by agreeing to cap the price of its oil.
In addition, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen estimated on Friday that “it would be time” to put a cap on the price of gas imported by pipeline from Russia, thus supporting a measure advocated by the Italian Prime Minister. Mario Draghi.
Support for Ukraine
In the European Union, “gas storage is currently at around 80%, thanks to the diversification of supplies”, even if the situation differs from one country to another, indicated Paolo Gentiloni. Brussels “has done a lot in recent months” but “today it is possible to do more”, because “the wall of divisions which has blocked the Commission’s action in recent months has many breaches”, has congratulated the European Commissioner.
The objective is to “pursue the strategy of a united Europe that works against the invasion of Ukraine by using the economic weapon”, he explained. “We are not participating in the war, we are not participating in the military escalation”, but “we support Ukraine” and “we have to do it now more effectively”.
Group purchases in Europe
“We are in favor of the principle of a gas price cap,” French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told AFP, welcoming Ursula von der Leyen’s statement on this option. But for the gas price cap to be effective, there must be joint purchases. »
The Minister also considered that a project dear to France, the “decoupling between the price of gas, fossil fuel, and the price of electricity, carbon-free energy”, should “not wait for the reform of the energy, because it will take months”.
Paris wants “the decoupling to take place in the coming weeks or months” because “it is now that we must act, it is now that we must definitively decouple the price of gas from the price of electricity “, he claimed.
Asked about a possible total cut off of Russian gas, he assured that “France is well prepared”. “The gas is used as a weapon” by Russia, “this weapon, we anticipated it, it will not be a surprise”.