(Finance) – The gas emergency plan of the European Commission which foresees 15% cuts in consumption to cope with tensions with Russia and has a mechanism of “solidarity” between countries on supplies is at risk. This is what “diplomatic sources in Brussels” reported to the Financial Times. The daily stressed that the support of 55% of the countries or states that represent 65% of the EU population is needed.
Spain And Portugal they have already expressed clear opposition to this project while several other European countries have expressed strong doubts. The energy minister of the Germany, Robert Habeck: “Countries that are not affected by Russia’s supply cuts should help others. Otherwise there is no European solidarity”. The Plan is currently under discussion in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper), which is meeting this afternoon in Brussels, after the proposal has already been examined by the group of energy experts in the EU Council. A new Coreper meeting is already scheduled for next Monday.
The Plan provides for a reduction of 15% of consumption of gas, calculated on the average consumption of the period 2017-2021 (from August to March), to be achieved in the period from August 2022 to the end of March 2023. Thereduction target is indicative, a kind of recommendation not binding, but it would become mandatory for all Member States in the event that the Commission declares an EU state of emergency due to substantial interruptions in the supply of gas, or due to its insufficiency due, for example, to a very cold winter.
According to sources, from what has emerged so far in Coreper, the matters more controversial for a number of Member States, the 15% reduction target is mandatory, in the case of the declaration of state of emergency, the 15% target itself, which many consider too ambitious and difficult to achieve, the principle of a uniform and equal target for all countries, regardless of their conditions and, finally, the powers that the Commission assigns itself in activating the ” mandatory reduction of gas consumption, with the simple decision to declare the state of alert. L’Italy it is currently among the most critical countries with respect to the first three points, along with several other Member States.