Austrian Foreign Minister Karl Nehammer considered the imposition of an embargo by the European Union (EU) on gas from Russia impossible, local media reported.
He recalled that Austria, like Germany, depends on Russian gas, and if the German industry loses sustainability, the same will happen to Austria’s.
On July 20th, the European Commission (EC) proposed a plan to reduce gas consumption in Europe by 15 percent until next spring, alleging that the bloc is exposed to new cuts in the supply of the product from Russia.
According to the European Commission, the Kremlin uses its exports as a weapon, an accusation that Moscow has always denied.
For his part, the spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitri Peskov, explained that the current decrease in distribution volumes is related to illegal restrictions, imposed by the European countries themselves.
The proposal to reduce imports of Russian gas was received by some EU countries as ineffective and unfair, so that at a meeting in Brussels, the region’s energy ministers agreed on changes to the EC plan.