It is not only in Germany that there is great nervousness that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not resume gas deliveries after the end of Nord Stream 1 maintenance on July 21.
The day before, the European Commission wants to present proposals on how the EU can get through the winter without Russian natural gas.
The joint purchase of gas from other suppliers should play a central role in this.
The Commission also wants to ensure that the states act in solidarity with one another.
For Germany, the question arises to what extent it has to fill the breach elsewhere if there are gaps in supply - or, as one of the countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas, can it hope for supplies from other countries.
Jan Hauser
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Henrik Kafsack
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Andreas Mihm
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Christian Schubert
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Niklas Zaboji
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The federal government is therefore currently working flat out to agree solidarity agreements for a secure emergency gas supply.
"We want to close them with all other European countries, our direct neighbors, but also beyond, like with Italy," says Habeck during a two-day visit to the Czech Republic and Austria.
He signed a framework agreement with the Czech Economics Minister Jozef Sikela.
The solidarity agreement should be in place by winter.
Habeck said: "We have to go through the cases and determine what exactly happens when: when a gas shortage is declared, in which countries, in what steps, so that we know exactly what happens." With the commitments, the shortage would be managed jointly, so that no individual would be hit harder by a supply crisis than others.
Germany will commission two floating regasification plants for liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of the year and two more by the middle of next year, Habeck said.
As a result, an additional 33 to 34 billion cubic meters could be imported per year.
This corresponds to a third of Germany's annual consumption.
Until then, however, the country is dependent on the LNG terminals in Belgium and France functioning and on gas continuing to flow from Norway, the Netherlands and Italy.
"Conversely, Germany knows that it has to redistribute the gas," said the minister.
"We help each other in the gas supply and will do the same from Germany for the Czech Republic," said Habeck in Prague, trying to contain concerns in the dependent Czech Republic.
"It is clear that cooperation with Germany, through which almost all gas flows to us, will be essential for us in this direction," said Síkela.
Like Austria, his country depends almost entirely on supplies from Russia.
Both countries are working to change that, for example by filling their storage as much as possible (see graphic).
The semi-public Czech energy group ČEZ has acquired a volume of 3 billion cubic meters at a Dutch LNG terminal, while Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) is hoping for promises of LNG deliveries for 2023 during his current visit to Israel.
So far, Germany has signed solidarity agreements with two neighbors, Denmark and Austria.
The basis for this is the Gas Supply Security Ordinance or SOS Ordinance - SOS stands for "Security of Supply".
The rules, which have been in force since 2018 and were adopted in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea, stipulate that countries connected by pipelines are obliged to help each other in crisis situations.
In case of doubt, Germany has to pay for its eight neighbors and Italy, which is connected via Switzerland.