The twenty-seven questioning the scope of Russia’s decision to stop the supply of gas to Poland and Bulgaria which refused to pay in rubles.
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Europeans do not know how to interpret Gazprom’s decision to interrupt its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria from this Wednesday, April 27. They fear that this is the beginning of a series which will then see other countries of the European Union (EU) subject to the same treatment. And they hope, without saying it, that this is a targeted retaliatory measure on these two countries, a kind of force of force intended to scare them.
For the time being, they are in common behind Warsaw and Sofia, who represent only 8 % of Russian gas imports for twenty-seven. “The Kremlin uses fossil fuels as a blackmail instrument,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the committee on Wednesday. “We have prepared for this scenario,” she added, promising “a coordinated European response”. As of Wednesday, Germany sent gas to Poland and Greece to Bulgaria.
The Kremlin claims that Sofia and Warsaw are deprived of gas for refusing to pay their purchases in rubles. Faced with European sanctions, after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin indeed requires that these transactions be done in the Russian national currency. On Wednesday, Moscow suggested that Vienne had accepted her conditions before being denied by the Austrian Prime Minister. Ursula von der Leyen, for its part, recalled that “97 % of contracts [between EU groups and Russian gas suppliers] provide payments in euros or dollars” and that there is, from then, no reason to modify the terms. Furthermore, she warned, European companies that would pay Russian gas in rubles would violate EU sanctions and will therefore be exposed to a “high” legal risk.
“revenge “Russian against Poland
For the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, the Russian decision is “revenge” against Poland, which, since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, has been on a line without concession vis-à-vis Moscow. On multiple times, Warsaw called on its partners to deliver more weapons to kyiv and to decide without waiting for a Russian energies embargo. Bulgaria, on the other hand, is much less Russophobic.
On the other hand, the two countries have in common to have decided, recently, “not to renew their contract with Gazprom”, which ends in the coming months, explains Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, the director of the Energy Center of the Jacques-Delors Institute. “The Baltic countries have stopped importing Russian gas, other member states have announced their intention to do so, but without giving a precise deadline. But only Poland and Bulgaria have announced the non-renewal of their contract “, Specifies a diplomat.
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