Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support each other in the midst of the energy crisis. The agreement will mean that member states will coordinate a response to a worst-case scenario in advance over serious fears that the lights could go out when demand rises and stocks fall further. Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said: “I have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with our European, Eastern European colleagues that we want to help each other with energy security.”
He later added: “We have agreed on such preliminary agreements or key points in the field of electricity and then also gas with the Eastern European and now Southeast European neighbors.
According to Euractiv, the agreement reads that the countries “want to confirm their intention to maintain and strengthen their cooperation on risk readiness in the electricity sector”.
The agreement is also intended to bring together experts and ministers to prepare for the event where energy supplies are so low that the issue “may not be resolved with market-based measures”.
This comes after Russia cut off pipeline gas traveling to Europe last month, causing panic to rise.
Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas giant, did warn ahead of time that it would reduce deliveries traveling to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 67 million cubic meters (bcm) per day instead of the usual 167 bcm.
This forced Germany, which gets a third of its gas from Russia, to trigger the second phase of a three-stage gas warning system.
That put the market on a war footing and left the country just a step away from gas rationing.
The emergency system is designed for accidental disruptions, such as an accident or a broken pipeline, and is not built to handle a permanent nationwide gas shutdown that could cause industrial collapse.
Mr Habeck also urged citizens to limit consumption and warned that industrial output would suffer.
The country has also built up a reserve fleet of coal-fired power plants to prepare for the worst as winter approaches.
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Slovakia, France and Italy have also seen their Russian gas imports fall due to the cuts that Gazprom blamed on a delay in repairing key infrastructure.
And on Monday, all EU countries agreed to replenish natural gas storage to at least 80 percent capacity to prepare for the event that Russia reduces even more supplies.
The supply squeeze was not the first time lower volumes of Russian gas had been sent to the bloc, and Moscow warned that it might not be the last.
This is because Putin has set a deadline of March 31 for countries to pay for gas in rubles or otherwise face a supply disruption.
The first to be hit by this were Poland and Bulgaria, with whom pipeline gas was temporarily cut off when Putin showed he was prepared to stick to his demand.
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And when the Netherlands refused to make the payment in Russian currency, the Dutch firm GasTerra said: “Gazprom has completely stopped gas supply to GasTerra due to non-payment in rubles.”
GasTerra said it had “decided not to comply with Gazprom’s unilateral payment requirements” as it would violate EU sanctions.
As a result, he expected to cut off gas and lose two billion cubic meters of Gazprom’s supplies between now and October.
Denmark also reported earlier this month that its gas supply had been cut off for refusing to meet Russian ruble demand. The Danish energy company Ørsted said: “We are adamant in our refusal to pay in rubles, and we have prepared for this scenario.
“The situation underscores the need for the EU to become independent of Russian gas by accelerating the development of renewable energy.”