EU Targets Gas Reduction Measures

The EU will set out emergency plans today to reduce gas demand throughout the region against a backdrop of weaker flows of gas from Russia.

• The EU is worried that if cuts are not made now, EU nations will struggle to make it through the winter.
• A draft of the EU plan seen by news outlets would propose a voluntary target for EU countries to cut their gas demand over the next eight months, which could be made legally binding if Europe faced a gas supply emergency.
• The draft does not indicate what the targets would be.
• EU nations now need to vote on the draft. The goal is to obtain country-level approval for the blueprint at the extraordinary Energy Council meeting on 26 July
• "This is a signal to all public bodies, consumers, households, owners of public buildings, power suppliers and that they must now take extraordinary and rapid measures to save gas," the draft said.