Brussels 9th August : The European Union’s (EU) emergency plan to prepare for a potential interruption in Russian gas imports will take effect on Tuesday, a day after it was released in the official journal of the bloc the day before. In the framework of this plan, EU countries are to reduce their gas consumption by 15% between August 1 through March 31st, 2023, as compared to their average consumption in the same timeframe over the last five years, according to the DPA news agency.
Based on European Commission figures, a total of 45 billion cubic meters of gas have to be saved to meet the goal.
Germany alone would need consumed around 10 billion cubic metres less.
The goal of the savings on gas is to plan for a total reduction of Russian gas deliveries to the EU after Moscow has drastically reduced gas deliveries to the bloc in recent months.
The new contingency plan includes the possibility of the EU-wide alert being activated in the case of massive gas shortages with obligatory gas savings targets.
At minimum, fifteen EU countries, which make up at least 65 percent of the total population, must sign a consent form to trigger the alert with mandatory cuts to consumption.
A number of countries such as Italy and Spain have secured exemptions from this event, and they would need in order to reduce their costs by less than 15.
The emergency plan will be in place for a year.
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