EU gas solidarity complicated by lack of fuel sharing deals

EU countries agreed on Tuesday to curb their gas use by 15% over winter

The European Union clinched a deal this week to cope with a gas supply crisis, but to make it work member states need to establish bilateral pacts to share gas and, right now, most have no such agreement in place, Qazet.az reports.

Only six such deals have been secured, leaving most of the EU's 27 countries without firm terms on how and when they would share gas in a supply crunch, or the financial compensation they would give or get for doing so.

"(Bilateral deals) are really ... the only thing that will hold at the end of the day if there is a real supply crisis," Christian Egenhofer, associate senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, said.

"They organise the legal stuff, the compensation, the financial but also the infrastructure constraints," he said.

Fearing Russia may completely halt gas flows, EU countries agreed on Tuesday to curb their gas use by 15% over winter, to fill storage and free up fuel to share around in a supply crisis.