Fifteen days after meeting at the Palace of Versailles, the European Heads of State and Government will meet again, Thursday 24 and Friday 25 March, in Brussels, for a summit which will be largely devoted to the war in Ukraine and its multiple consequences for the European Union. The question of energy will occupy a large part of the discussions, as soaring prices weigh on the post-Covid recovery and as the Twenty-Seven seek to reduce their dependence on Russia, from which comes a most of their imports of gas (40%), oil (25%) and coal (46%).
If, at this stage, the Europeans are not yet ready to decree an embargo on Russian oil and gas, they cannot for all that exclude this hypothesis. Nor can they be certain that Moscow will not decide, at one time or another, to cut off the gas tap for them. At Versailles, they therefore agreed to “gradually get rid of [leur] dependence on imports of Russian gas, oil and coal, as soon as possible”read their joint statement.
Between their reserves and the gas purchases they have contracted in recent weeks from countries other than Russia, the Twenty-Seven say they have enough to end the winter without too much difficulty. On the other hand, they are not yet able to do without Russian energy the following winter. In this context, the European Commission should make several proposals, Wednesday, March 23, so that they prepare for it.
Fill the tanks
This should present a draft directive, which the Twenty-Seven will discuss on Thursday and Friday, in order to force them to fill their gas tanks to 90% on 1er November, before each winter period. Today, the storage capacities of Europeans are only used up to 26%. Some Member States, such as France, have storage capacities, others do not, but should also, analyzes the Commission, participate in the common effort.
The community executive should also offer the Twenty-Seven to buy gas together, as they did for vaccines against Covid. An option that Spain had mentioned in the fall of 2021, when energy prices had started to soar but which, at the time, had not met with much enthusiasm among its partners.
Today, even if many details remain to be refined, the minds are more mature and this track now seems to have consensus. The draft conclusions of the Council of Thursday and Friday also indicate that the Member States and the Commission will “to work together on the common purchase of natural gas, liquefied natural gas and hydrogen”.
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