EU gas supplies on 'safe side' for winter even if Russia cuts tap further, von der Leyen tells MEPs
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that gas supplies to the bloc are on the "safe side" for the remainder of the winter even if Russia further squeezes out deliveries.
Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg at the start of a debate on EU relations with Russia, von der Leyen said the bloc is "ready in case the Russian leadership decides to weaponise the energy issue".
"During the last weeks, we have looked into all possible disruption scenarios in case Russia decides to partially or completely disrupt gas supplies to the EU. And I can say that our models show that we are now rather on the safe in this winter," she said.
Russia has amassed up to 150,000 troops along its shared border with Ukraine and in Belarus, according to Washington. This has stoked fears that it is getting ready to invade its neighbour.
Moscow denies the accusation but has issued a list of demands to NATO including a guarantee that Ukraine and Georgia will never be allowed to join the security alliance and that allied troops be withdrawn from some eastern European countries.
NATO has rejected these demands and high-level diplomatic talks have been ongoing for weeks.
In the meantime, NATO countries — most EU member states, Canada, the UK, and the US — have drawn up a list of economic sanctions they describe as "severe" that they will impose on Russia should it move ahead with a military incursion into Ukraine.
The EU has already stressed that these sanctions would have "massive" consequences for the Russian economy but also on its own economy and that Moscow could also retaliate by squeezing its gas supplies to the bloc.
Over a fifth of power generation in the EU comes from liquified natural gas (LNG) but about 90% of the bloc's gas
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