An emergency meeting of EU energy ministers is held today to agree a common position on Russia’s request to be paid in rubles for gas deliveries, on pain of interruption.
Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, last week halted gas deliveries to Bulgaria and Poland after the two European countries refused to make payments under the conditions Moscow requested. While Sofia and Warsaw had already planned to end Russian gas imports by the end of the year and said they could compensate for Gazprom’s disruption of deliveries, Moscow’s decision nonetheless fueled fears that other EU countries they are in the same situation, including Germany, which is highly dependent on Russian gas.
Brussels has started considering a new directive at the request of several countries, including Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Poland and Slovakia. Russia supplies 40% of the EU’s gas needs, a dependency that has supported the reluctance in Germany and other countries to abruptly stop Russian energy imports. Diplomats say the EU should move towards banning Russian oil imports by the end of the year.
A new round of sanctions against Moscow, proposed by the European Commission, will be discussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday. Meanwhile, energy ministers will debate today on the need to rapidly secure non-Russian alternatives for gas supplies and to create reserves, amid the threat of a shortage that could plunge European countries into recession.