Anxious to cushion the fall in Russian deliveries and reduce their dependence on imported hydrocarbons, the EU-27 agreed last July to reduce their gas demand over the period August 2022-March 2023 by 15% compared to the average of the last five years. A target largely exceeded, thanks to a clement weather and the high prices which have prompted households and companies to make savings: according to Eurostat, gas consumption in the EU fell by 19.3% between August and January, compared with the average consumption over the same period between 2017 and 2022.
This “voluntary” target was renewed identically by the energy ministers meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, on the proposal of the European Commission. Between the beginning of April 2023 and the end of March 2024, the states will have to strive to reduce their gas consumption by 15% compared to the average recorded over these same months between 2017 and 2022. They remain free to choose the means to achieve this.
“The game is not over, we need to put ourselves in a position to face the next winter” This reduction will only become binding if they decide to declare an “alert situation” at EU level in case of a serious threat of shortage. “The EU is not completely out of the energy crisis and Russia continues to use energy as a weapon. European states must stand together and prepare for the coming winter,” warned Swedish Energy Minister Ebba Busch, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
The European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson had considered that this extension was “the best assurance to reach the adequate level of storage by November”, at least 90% of the EU reserves as now provided by European law. “Adopting this reduction target (of consumption) last year was decisive to face the winter without Russian gas and in our fight against the energy blackmail led by Russia (…) But the game is not over, we must be in a position to face the next winter,” said his Czech counterpart Jozef Sikela.
On the other hand, Hungary announced that, like Poland, it had voted against the text, judging that it “took away from the States their sovereign right to decide how to consume their energy” and considering that “the increase in gas supplies (was) the only reasonable and effective solution” to reduce energy prices in the EU, according to the spokesman for the Hungarian government.
