The greatest European gas show

It’s not really like me to start with unpleasant imagery but sometimes there is no way around it. Anyone who’s ever had a zit knows that popping it is not a pretty sight but sometimes it has to be done. In Europe, someone just popped a zit.

It was actually more than one someone. Almost half of European Union member states opposed the European Commission’s brilliant idea to impose obligatory gas consumption cuts on all members. Only if necessary, of course.

The idea, as floated by the Commission while I was relaxing at the beach, is to first agree to voluntary 15% gas consumption cuts beginning next month. For all EU members. For eights months.

The amount of gas saved from eight months of 15% lower consumption, according to Reuters, would come in at some 45 billion cu m. That’s in the ideal case of everyone really cutting consumption by 15%.

Since reality is far from ideal, the EU’s Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson reported recently that EU members had so far reduced their gas consumption by just 5% despite rising prices and falling Russian import volumes. They would need to cut a lot deeper to make it through the winter. And maybe do it under obligation. The zit popped the moment the obligatory mechanism was mentioned. There’s blood and valiant dead white blood cells everywhere.