Will we soon be shivering in German apartments, for lack of gas to heat them? The option is being seriously discussed by economists and security experts across the Rhine, as Russia threatened on Monday March 7 to cut off the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which supplies Germany via the Baltic Sea. For the moment rejected by the government, an immediate voluntary embargo on imports of Russian hydrocarbons would be the most severe sanction against Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine, and the most serious consequences for Germany, whose gas supplies are 55% dependent on Russia.
“Our options are limited. But what we can do, we should do. The Germans are not shown to be very supportive of the Ukrainians, they would be ready to put up with being a little colder at home,” declared on television, Tuesday March 8, Christoph Heusgen, president of the Munich conference on security and former diplomatic adviser to Angela Merkel. For Norbert Röttgen, Christian Democrat MP and security expert, “the issue of oil and gas deliveries is crucial, as it concerns the only vital economic artery of the Putin system”, he wrote on Twitter.
The day before, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had specified that the government had knowingly avoided sanctions against Moscow affecting the energy sector. “The European energy supply for heating, mobility, power generation and industry cannot be ensured otherwise, it is of crucial importance for the lives of our fellow citizens”, did he declare. The Minister for the Economy and the Climate, Robert Habeck, an ecologist, also fears that an energy embargo on Russian deliveries will jeopardize social peace in Germany.
Intervene quickly
His ministry assured that gas and oil reserves are currently sufficient for the country to hold out until next winter. He said he was evaluating all the possibilities to reduce dependence on Russian energy as quickly as possible. One of the options considered, the extension of nuclear power plants still in operation, was finally ruled out on Tuesday morning. Upon review, the ministries concerned have declared that a “Extension of the life of the plants could only contribute in a very limited way to the resolution of the problem, and this at a very high economic cost and taking risks in terms of constitutional law and security”.
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