Europe agrees plan to avoid gas shortages
BBC 25 September
The European Parliament has approved proposals to improve
co-ordination between European Union member countries if they face
sudden gas shortages.
Supplies to thousands of homes and businesses across the EU were cut
last year due to a payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
National governments are due to approve the bill by the end of the
year. It is part of Europe’s attempts to improve the way it deals with
future gas crises. The proposals voted through by the European
Parliament provide stricter guarantees that gas companies will not be
able to cut supplies to households in case of extreme temperatures or
severe disruption.
National governments will have three years to put in place new
cross-border interconnections to enable countries to redirect gas to
each other.
These new rules, said Polish MEP Konrad Szymanski, must signal the
end of indifference by national governments and companies to the use of
gas as a political tool, particularly by Russia.
Moscow supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas consumption, mainly through
Ukrainian pipelines.
In January last year, millions of Europeans were left shivering while
Russia argued with Ukraine over the price of gas. But that was only one
in a series of gas crises. In June, Poland and Lithuania saw their gas
deliveries dip by as much as 50% because of a similar dispute between
Russia and Belarus.
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