Today, during an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers of the EU member states, an agreement was reached to reduce gas consumption from August 2022 to March 2023. Details of the agreement are to be known in the coming days.
An agreement was reached after around two hours of talks.
According to the Council, the member states undertake to reduce gas demand by 15%. The Council regulation also provides for the possibility of triggering a "security of supply alert"; in this case, reducing gas demand would become mandatory.
The Council agreed that Member States that are not connected to the gas networks of other Member States would be exempted from compulsory gas reductions as they would not be able to release significant amounts of pipeline gas to other Member States. Member States whose electricity networks are not synchronized with the European electricity system and rely heavily on gas to produce electricity are also exempted to avoid the risk of an electricity supply crisis.
It's hard not to conclude that it's a good thing that Poland bought all this gas from other sources than Russia at sometimes higher rates. Now it can, or should we say is obligated to, share with countries like Germany that created the crisis.
