On Saturday 16 November, Russia stopped delivering gas to Austria, as announced the day before in Vienna by the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer. This follows a declaration by the country’s main energy supplier, OMV, that it would stop paying for gas from Gazprom to compensate for a €230 million arbitration award it won following an earlier gas cut-off at its German subsidiary (see EUROPE 13525/18).
“Gazprom, the Russian gas supplier, says that there will be no more gas deliveries from tomorrow”, warned Mr Nehammer at a hastily organised press conference to try to reassure the public that Austria had a secure supply of alternative fuel for this winter.
In the wake of this, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, supported the Chancellor, assuring him that Europe remained united in its support for Austria.
“Once again, [Vladimir] Putin is using energy as a weapon. He is trying to blackmail Austria and Europe by cutting off gas supplies”, she posted on X.
However, she agreed with Mr Nehammer that the EU was “ready for this eventuality and ready to face the winter”, with full gas stocks throughout the European Union.
It should be noted that the agreement for the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine is due to expire by the end of the year (see EUROPE 13506/14). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)