Robert Habeck does not want to rely on Russian promises.
(Photo: dpa)
Against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the federal government is preparing for a significant deterioration in gas supplies in Germany. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) called for the “early warning level” of the so-called gas emergency plan on Wednesday in Berlin.
The EU Commission has been informed. The step is precautionary. Habeck emphasized that all contracts are currently being complied with, Russian gas is still flowing to Germany. “There are currently no supply bottlenecks,” said Habeck. Nevertheless, Germany must be “armed in the event of an escalation by Russia”.
Habeck’s decision follows Russia’s announcement that it will insist on payment in rubles for future gas deliveries. The Europeans reject this demand. The energy ministers of the G7 countries also decided at their meeting on Monday, chaired by Habeck, not to accept Russia’s demand. So far, Russian gas deliveries have been billed in euros or dollars.
Russia wants to implement the announcement regardless of the criticism, said Habeck. The Russian side will present a legal regulation tomorrow, Thursday, in which the obligation to pay in rubles will be stipulated. Accordingly, if the payment is not made in rubles, the gas supply should be stopped.
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Habeck again accused the Russian side of breaching the contract. Putin is trying to “break the sanctions” by insisting on payment in rubles, the economy minister said. You will not accept that.
According to the gas emergency plan, there are three levels of crisis. The “early warning stage” is the first of these three stages. This is followed by the “alert level” and the “emergency level”.
Ministers set up crisis team
The early warning level is activated when there are “concrete, serious and reliable indications” that an event can occur which will probably lead to a significant deterioration in the gas supply situation and will probably trigger the alarm or emergency level. The early warning stage essentially goes hand in hand with increased monitoring of the supply situation.
Habeck announced that a crisis team made up of authorities and energy suppliers would come together at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. “The crisis team analyzes and evaluates the supply situation so that – if necessary – further measures can be taken to increase the security of supply. The federal government is doing everything possible to continue to ensure security of supply in Germany,” says a statement from the ministry.
According to the ministry, the overall supply of all German gas consumers is currently secured. “Nevertheless, from now on every gas consumer – from business to private households – is also required to reduce their consumption as much as possible.” Every kilowatt hour of energy saved helps, said Habeck at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
The gas suppliers and the operators of the gas pipelines are now obliged to regularly assess the situation for the federal government. The state is not yet intervening, the ministry emphasizes.
According to the emergency plan, gas traders and suppliers, transmission and distribution system operators initially take “market-based” measures to maintain the gas supply: These include, for example, the use of flexibilities on the procurement side, recourse to gas storage and the optimization of load flows.
Household customers are not affected. They are specially protected and would only be switched off as a last resort.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Tuesday, according to the Russian agency Interfax, that by Thursday, March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin would work out modalities to make the switch to ruble payment “simple, understandable, transparent and feasible” for the European and international gas consumers. “No one will deliver gas for free, and it can only be paid for in rubles,” he emphasized once again.
Putin announced last week that Russia would only deliver gas to Germany and other “unfriendly countries” if they were paid in rubles. This would support the troubled Russian currency.
More: You can follow the current developments in the Ukraine war in our news blog