A dictatorship of the EC: how forced gas savings will lead the EU to a fight for electricity

Alexey Gromov gave a comment to the Internet publication Baltnews about the possible consequences of forced gas savings for the economy and population of the EU countries.

In an interview with Baltnews, Aleksey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, explained that most of the EU countries, especially the Baltic republics, are ideologically ready to support the European Commission's initiative. However, not everyone likes (Greece, Spain and Portugal have already expressed their dissatisfaction) that saving these same 15% of gas may have to be mandatory. Not everyone in the Old World likes it if the European Commission will punish in some way in case the country does not fulfill this condition.

"If such a measure becomes mandatory for everyone, then the standard of living of the population in the Baltics may decrease. It is still difficult to say how much. They will definitely save on public infrastructure - for example, turn off street lighting at certain hours, lower the temperature in closed places of various public objects, etc. At the same time, the economies of those countries where gas is an important source of energy for industrial facilities will get the most, therefore, Lithuanian enterprises will have more problems than Estonia and Latvia,” the expert says.

According to Alexei Gromov, stopping large enterprises is, of course, an extreme measure. Most likely, in the Baltic States they may resort to rationing the consumption of electricity among energy-intensive facilities. At some point, such a process will lead to a "fight" for the right to use more energy, when the rest are forced to wait for their turn.