The European Commission today published the communication entitled “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” in tandem with a proposed regulation on the coordinated reduction of gas demand in the Member States. According to this, the Member States are to voluntarily cut their gas demand by 15%. However, the European Commission is given the possibility to declare a “Union Alert” which would make this cut mandatory.

Federal Minister Robert Habeck said: “We greatly welcome the European Commission’s proposal. European solidarity is more important than ever at this time. We need to work more closely together so that we can act better together when there is a gas crisis. After all, if the gas supply encounters difficulties in one or several Member States, this will ultimately impact all the EU countries. We therefore need to jointly step up our preparatory measures. Cutting the consumption of gas is one decisive lever. We all need to do our utmost to achieve this.”

The communication contains a list of possible measures that the Member States can take to cut their gas demand. These include fuel switching measures, the development of auction procedures in the industrial sector, and information campaigns on how consumers can save gas and energy. The package presented today by the European Commission will be discussed at the meeting of energy ministers in Brussels on 26 July 2022.

For more information, please visit:
Draft regulation: https://energy.ec.europa.eu/proposal-regulation-coordinated-demand-reduction-measures-gas_en
Overview: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_4608