Germany, in support of the EC’s “solidarity” response

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Germany supports the plan presented on Wednesday by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also German, which has so far been met with the explicit rejection of Spain, Portugal and Greece.

“We have those colleagues who say: ‘Pff, why are we going to reduce our consumption, if we don’t depend on Russian gas,’ admitted the German Minister of Economy and Climate Protection, the green Robert Habeck, alluding to the negative reaction of so far some of its partners in the south on the proposal of the European Commission (EC) to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%.

Germany supports the plan presented on Wednesday by the president of the EC, the also German Ursula von der Leyen, who has so far run into the explicit rejection of Spain, Portugal and Greece. It is a “correct” proposal, according to Habeck, presented by Brussels as a “solidarity response” given the evidence that Russia is not and will not be a reliable partner. Moscow is using gas supplies “to extort money from Germany and Europe,” Habeck argued.

The minister’s statements, holding the rank of deputy chancellor in Olaf Scholz’s tripartite between Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, followed the resumption of supplies through Nord Stream after a 10-day suspension for maintenance duties.

In these works, as in the theoretical lack of a Moscow-made German-made turbine, Habeck sees the expression of the extortion practices propagated by the Kremlin against Germany, which ceased to be a willing customer of its gas. The Scholz government has renounced, or is attempting to relinquish, the line of submission or even energetic complicity with the Kreml, which was undertaken during the time of another Social Democratic Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and who, during the sixteen years in power of the conservative Angela Merkel was continued.

Habeck has been tasked with correcting this path, something his party, the Greens, had always done. But what neither German environmentalism nor its leader foresaw is that they would have to do it in record time, with a war that has sparked the energy crisis and inflation. Under his leadership, the percentage of Russian gas imports has been reduced from 55% in February, at the start of the invasion, to the current 26%. But Germany still has no fixed liquefied gas terminals – another burden left by Scholz’s predecessors – nor the high development of renewable energy by some European partners – partly due to cuts in subsidies imposed on the sector with Merkel in the can.

There are many reproaches that come more or less diplomatically from Habeck to his predecessors these days. Until now, in the moderate tone that characterizes the politician, also aware that Scholz Merkel was the last deputy chancellor and therefore partly responsible for some of those decisions.

Habeck supports von der Leyen’s proposal, as expected. But it doesn’t look like he’s confident it will thrive, at least not as the president has put it. “It’s a proposal, not an agreement,” he admitted. The EC President’s plan is subject to the vote of the twenty-seven. It needs a simple majority to thrive.

Source: La Verdad

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