The pivotal day of May 9 has come and gone without Vladimir Putin announcing the "end of the world". This is not to say that the future does not look quite bleak... Let alone in a period of fragile recovery from the recession of the pandemic.
Volodymyr Zelensky[/B] asked "what price will Russia pay for bringing war back to Europe?" But the reverse seems to be true for the European Union, which is also facing the economic costs of the war, which are now evident. The planned sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, including an embargo on Russian oil, is necessary, the Ukrainian president reiterated, while the relevant Commission proposal is on the negotiating table. Josep Borel said, however, that he hoped to reach an agreement on an EU oil embargo on Russia soon.
The Russian foreign minister responded that "the European Union is fully based on the Washington line and has no independent foreign policy" at a press conference after his visit to Algeria. Finally, it will be recalled that the initial goal was for the sixth package of sanctions to have entered into force on May 9, which was not possible. In any case, the foreign ministers will meet next Monday, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the "progress" made during the talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. This is the "difficult" member of the Union.
A catalytic development is the announcement by the operator of Ukraine's gas transmission system GTSOU. "Due to force majeure it will suspend from today, Wednesday, May 11, the transportation of Russian gas to Europe via the Sochranivka station." This is a decision that accelerates the fatality... The company also notes that "the Novoposkov compression station is the first of the Ukrainian GTS compression stations in the Lugansk region, through which almost a third of gas (up to 32.6 million cubic meters per day) is piped from Russia to Europe."
The company also added that currently its employees cannot "exercise operational and technological control over Novoposkov CS and other assets located in these areas." Russian energy giant Gazprom tonight asserted that it is not technically feasible to transfer the flow of natural gas in Ukraine to a new entry station, as proposed by GTSOU, the operator of Ukraine's gas transmission system.
According to information from European publications, in particular the Spanish newspaper el pais, the Commission is considering alternatives to the possibility of an energy blackout. The mere fact that this is seen as a possibility is enough to cause concern. The Commission will present on 18 May a contingency plan for actions to be taken in the coming period. In fact, these include "Sundays without cars!" In fact, the famous emergency plan is based on the regulation on security of supply, which has been in force since 2017.
So measures such as
Teleworking up to three times a week, which could lead to savings of 500,000 barrels of oil, are on the table. One day of telecommuting is equivalent to 170,000 fewer barrels of oil per day.
Car sharing with other people and mild financial assistance means 470,000 fewer barrels.
Reducing speed limits on highways by at least 10 kilometers, per hour equals 430.000 barrels less.
Sundays without cars in cities means 380,000 barrels less, while the use of single-oil cars in cities saves 210,000 barrels of oil. Energy savings are also proposed: limiting the number of business trips by air, using electric vehicles and trains instead of planes.
The aim, it is stressed, is to ensure energy sufficiency primarily for households and vital public services, as well as for those sectors of production that are vital (as was the case with the first lockdowns in 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out).
With this and that, the European stock markets are under pressure. European stocks, however, have recovered from the lows of the last two months. The markets, however, cannot ignore the global high inflation that continues to climb. This combined with an energy crisis produces a combustible economic cocktail that could produce a global predicament...
Source: protothema.gr
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