According to the European Commission, the EU should prepare itself for the fact that it will not receive any gas from Russia in the coming winter.
In its gas savings plan, the Brussels authorities are therefore going beyond their already known recommendations for reduced energy consumption - for example not too high office temperatures - and want to regulate gas consumption in the EU by law.
Werner Mussler
Business correspondent in Brussels.
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"Russia is using gas as a weapon in its war, and we have to prepare for that," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday when she presented her "European plan to reduce gas demand."
The plan contains as a central goal that the EU countries reduce their demand for gas by 15 percent between August 1st and March 31st.
This goal is to be decided by the energy ministers as early as next week via a kind of emergency decree without the participation of the EU Parliament.
Another key element of the plan is that the Commission can issue an "EU alert" if it sees gas supplies in all or some parts of the EU at risk or if it finds that gas consumption is too high.
Then it should be able to force the member states to reduce their gas consumption.
The plan contains detailed rules for reducing gas demand.