European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni (Gentiloni) gave assurances today that the European Union is ready in the event of a complete interruption of Russian gas deliveries thanks to storage and energy saving measures.
"We are well prepared to resist Russia's extreme use of gas as a weapon," he told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum organized on Lake Como.
"We are not afraid of Putin's decisions, we ask the Russians to respect the contracts, but if they don't do it, we are ready to react," he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian giant Gazprom announced yesterday that it will continue the indefinite shutdown of the North Stream gas pipeline, which connects Russia with northern Germany, even after a three-day interruption due to regular maintenance, citing an oil leak in one of the turbines as the reason.
This is how Moscow reacted to the G7 countries' announcement yesterday that they plan to limit Russian oil prices.
In the European Union, gas warehouses are about 80 percent full thanks to the diversification of deliveries, Gentiloni said, pointing out that the situation is different from country to country.
Brussels has done a lot in recent months, he said, adding that today it is possible to do more because the divisions that have blocked the Commission's action have been reduced in recent months.
"The goal is to continue the strategy of a united Europe that acts against the invasion of Ukraine using economic weapons," he said.
"We do not participate in the war, we do not participate in the military escalation" but, he added, "we support Ukraine" and now we need to "do it more efficiently".
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