A likelihood of a gas crisis in Europe

Marcel Salikhov, President of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Internet portal "Lenta.ru" on the likelihood of the energy crisis in Europe.

Despite the fact that the rise in gas prices turned out to be very painful for the entire European Union, most European countries have already developed measures to support their citizens, so no global crisis is expected in the near future, the economist Marcel Salikhov believes. In a conversation with Lenta.ru, he noted that Poland somewhat exaggerated the scale of the problem, especially given the fact that it consumes mostly coal.

Europe is on the verge of a huge energy crisis, which could soon have serious consequences, Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish Prime Minister said. “The level of the crisis may shake Europe in the coming weeks. Many enterprises can go bankrupt, and, the gas crisis can plunge millions of households, tens of millions of families into poverty <...> due to uncontrolled rise in prices throughout Europe ", - Moravetsky assessed the situation.

Polish dilemma

Salikhov agreed that due to high gas prices, the cost of heating, electricity, business expenses in the EU will inevitably rise. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that at the moment there are any problems with the supply. In addition, he noted that, although gas consumption is at low levels, they have not even approached the minimum for the last ten years.

“European governments are already considering options for providing support to households, low-income citizens at the expense of the state budget, so on a union-wide basis, the rise in gas prices is not the factor that could bring down the entire economy,” Salikhov said. “Yes, this is a definite blow, the growth rate will slow down, but it’s impossible to say that Europe will collapse.”

He noted that it is rather strange to hear such statements from Poland, because the country extracts and consumes a lot of coal, which is a significant element in its energy sector, although this contradicts the pan-European climate agenda.

“Of course, for Poland this is not only a financial, but also a social moment - mining cities provide jobs for a large number of the population. The country herself is not so much interested in Russian gas, but it also has no alternatives if a decision is made to move away from coal generation,” the economist concluded.