BRUSSELS, 25 November – RIA Novosti. The new mechanism for joint gas purchases for the EU, where it will be impossible to buy Russian “blue fuel”, does not generally prohibit the countries of the union from importing gas from the Russian Federation, the representative of the European Commission. He told RIA Novosti.

Another representative of the EC told reporters earlier that the European Commission, as a body that creates official legislative proposals on restrictive measures for EU countries’ approval, does not and is not working on a ban on gas imports from Russia to the EU. on Friday.

On the eve of the pre-selection, the energy ministers of the EU countries agreed on the creation of a new mechanism for joint purchases of “blue fuel” in the EU for the winter of 2023/2024. An EU source told reporters on Thursday that the aim of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union is to finally approve this mechanism on an interim basis in mid-December.

In mid-October, the European Commission proposed a new set of measures to tackle the energy crisis in the EU; these include the introduction of a joint purchase of about 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas to fill the Union’s storage facilities for the winter of 2023-2024. . This would be about 15% of the EU countries’ target to replenish their reserves. At the same time, “request picking” for this volume of gas by EU companies will be a mandatory process, but they can then decide whether or not to buy this fuel. Above 15%, consolidation of gas demand through the mechanism will be optional.

The mechanism cannot be used to purchase Russian “blue fuel”.

According to the European Council, consolidating demand at the union level would give it a greater advantage over sellers when purchasing gas on world markets, and would also eliminate unnecessary competition between union states for that fuel.