European Commission: 12 Countries without Russian Gas

Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy said that 12 states in the EU are completely or partially without Russian gas.

Simson added that Moscow's behavior in recent weeks has exacerbated the risks.

The Commissioner said in a statement to the Estonian newspaper "Postimees", that the crisis has been severe since the start of last autumn, but Russia's behavior in recent weeks has greatly exacerbated the risks.

She explained that the EU crisis plan that was prepared at the beginning of the year, can be useful at every moment, and member states must be prepared to implement their plans.

Simson noted that the EU reached an agreement last week to raise gas supplies with Israel and Egypt, and enhance cooperation with Norway and that direct negotiations with Azerbaijan are in their final stages.

The disagreement between energy ministers is caused by issues related to electricity market activities, as well as the expansion of nuclear energy activities, according to the commissioner.

The European commissioner indicated that the commission cannot take decisions on this issue and that the selection of energy sources in accordance with the basic European treaties is the sovereign right of member states.

At the end of May, Russian gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, and the Netherlands stopped, due to their refusal to accept the new settlement system proposed by Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 9 that the counties that refused to pay for Russian gas under the new rules had already stopped gas supplies to them.

On June 14, "Gazprom" announced that it had to reduce gas supplies through the "North Stream" pipelines for technical reasons.