FT: EU countries seek exemptions to Brussels’ plans to cut gas demand

European governments are attempting to water down Brussels’ plans to push the bloc into cutting gas demand to better weather a shortage of Russian supplies this winter, reported from the Financial Times.

Diplomats from the 27 EU member states have been locked in negotiations since the European Commission proposed measures last week requiring countries to cut gas use by 15 percent from next month. The plan prompted bickering over the size of the target and whether Brussels had the power to make it binding. It needs to be approved by member states at a meeting of energy minister this week.

In a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times, EU countries have suggested that, while a voluntary target could be standardised across the bloc, compulsory targets should take into account each state’s dependency on Russian gas as well as the amount they have managed to funnel into storage.

The reduction should also be less if a member state has extra gas it could supply to others in the EU either via LNG shipments or pipelines. Certain industries seen as critical to the single market should also be exempt, according to the draft.

"Member states should be free to choose the appropriate measures to reach the demand reduction,” the draft read.

Brussels has been agonizing over how to prepare itself for a potential cut in energy supplies come winter, as Moscow weaponizes gas deliveries in retaliation for European support for Kyiv in its war with Russia.

Before Moscow’s invasion, the EU was reliant on Russia for about 40 percent, or 155bn cubic metres, of its gas but has since vowed to wean itself off these supplies by 2027.

Last week, the European Commission suggested that member states should aim to cut gas by 15 percent over the next eight months compared with the average for the same period between 2017 and 2021.





www.anews.az