Gas crisis: Moldova declares state of emergency, Europeans divided
This gas crisis was at the heart of the autumn European summit, which ended this Friday in Brussels.
In Moldova, the government is establishing a state of emergency (Image illustration).
REUTERS / Gleb Garanich / Files
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Moldova, a poor country of just over two and a half million inhabitants, the government is establishing a state of emergency to enable it to ensure its gas reserves.
The reason for this is the rise in gas prices and the difficulties that the country is encountering with its energy suppliers.
This gas crisis was at the heart of the autumn European summit, which ended this Friday, October 22 in Brussels.
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According to Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, the situation in her country is critical.
Moldova buys its gas from Russia, via the Russian-Moldovan company Moldovagaz, partly owned by the Russian giant Gazprom.
While Gazprom and Moldovogaz had agreed to extend their contract until the end of the month, at the beginning of October Gazprom increased the price of 1,000 m3 by 240 dollars, to set it at 790 dollars.
In addition, the Prime Minister underlines that the two companies do not deliver the agreed quantities.
This crisis is unfolding against a backdrop of political tension.
The gas supplied by Russia passes through Transniestria, a pro-Russian separatist territory straddling Ukraine and Moldova from which it seceded 30 years ago, recalls
Patricia Lecompte
, of RFI's economy service.
Worried about this situation, Natalia Gavrilita hopes that the establishment of a state of emergency will allow her to escape bureaucratic procedures in order to obtain gas from other European countries.
But the whole of Europe is itself facing a gas crisis due to the resumption of post-pandemic economic activity, low stocks and the onset of winter.
Gas crisis at the heart of the European Summit
This gas crisis was precisely at the heart of the autumn European summit, which ended this Friday in Brussels.
Indeed, the subject that most caught the attention of the 27 heads of state and government of the EU is soaring prices and the European internal energy market, widely called into question according to several. Member States of the Union, reports our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet
.
There is always a dividing line between countries that take immediate action on the one hand and those that believe prices will become reasonable in the spring on the other.
They have half-heartedly accepted the idea of reforming the European internal energy market, which links the price of electricity to the price of gas.
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Read also: Why gas prices are soaring in Europe
Question to be solved at 27
According to the President of the European Council Charles Michel,
the energy issue
must be resolved at 27: “
On the one hand, there is what we can do at national level. In the short term, many countries, very quickly and very courageously, have taken a number of decisions. And then we can see that the European framework can deploy initiatives that will be more in the medium and long term
, he explains.
So there is a language of truth, there is no intention to make people believe that there are things that can be done at European level that would have an impact tomorrow or the day after. Probably, European equities are more in line with a medium and long term reasoning.
"
Certain national demands were heard, such as the idea of planning common strategic stocks for gas.
The French request to classify nuclear energy among the low-carbon energies promoting the fight against climate change will be studied.
This is also the case for all the questions arising from this gas crisis, because the 27 have only launched an all-out reflection.
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