While Russian supplier Gazprom has now announced a further cut in gas volumes to Europe and justified it with EU sanctions, the European Court of Auditors has doubts about the European Commission’s main plan for Russian energy independence. A report published Tuesday warns that there simply cannot be enough money to be mobilized to support this massive feat.
In May, the Brussels authorities under Ursula von der Leyen presented the plan called “RePower EU”, which should make even 300 billion euros available by 2030. This money will largely consist of loans and grants. It is distributed among the federal states according to the criteria of the Corona development tool RRF. Brussels estimates that investments of €210 billion will be needed by 2027 to phase out Russian energy imports.
So far, however, only EUR 20 billion has been made available. The European Commission has no control over the rest of the money, they say. The planned allocation of funds to the EU countries also proves problematic. As the money has to be allocated according to the proportions originally earmarked for the Corona aid, it did not reflect the current challenges or the specific needs of the EU countries. For example, Germany receives more than a third of EU energy imports from Russia, but receives only 8.3 percent of the subsidies according to the RRF distribution key.
Gazprom reduces the gas volume supplied again
As of Wednesday (6:00 pm CEST), only half of the already reduced gas volume from Russia will be delivered to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The Russian company Gazprom had announced that it would reduce the use of the main connection for Russian natural gas deliveries to Germany from 40 percent to 20 percent or 33 million cubic meters of gas per day. Western sanctions against Russia are cited as the reason. These would have caused problems in the repair and maintenance of gas turbines.
A gas turbine repaired in Canada is still not back in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “It is on its way.” It should then be installed quickly. “The situation is complicated by the restrictions that have been put in place against our country,” he said. “If these limitations were not there, all repair, warranty and service work would be performed in the usual routine operational order.” The German government, among others, considers this a sham and sees political reasons.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
