Germany and Austria have activated emergency plans to manage a gas supply outage arising from a payment dispute with Russia.
Russia initially demanded that ‘unfriendly’ countries begin paying for its gas in roubles from the end of March, but the EU, which primarily pays in euros, rejected the proposal.
Russia then softened its stance, announcing on Wednesday that rouble payments would be phased in over time.
Germany and Austria, on the other hand, have taken the initial steps toward gas rationing.
In preparation for anticipated shortages, Germany has asked households and businesses to cut back on their consumption, while Austria has announced that it is increasing its gas market surveillance.
Germany imports half of its gas and a third of its oil from Russia, and has warned that if supplies are disrupted, the country might suffer a recession.
Neighbouring Austria is significantly more reliant on Russia for gas, receiving around 80% of its supply from the country, though the office of Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that measures such as gas rationing would only be used in an ‘immediate crisis’.
The ‘early warning phase’ is the first of three phases in Germany’s existing gas emergency plan to prepare the country for a probable supply deficit. The government would impose gas rationing in the latter stages of the plan.
[Image: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/european-union-europe-flag-russia-7101795/]