The European Union depends heavily on outside countries for its gas needs, with Russia being the foremost supplier. In total 15 countries are totally dependent on foreign gas and 60% of the overall gas used in the EU is imported. If Russian imports account for 42% of the total, for some Eastern European member states this dependency can be over 70%.

Now the Commission wants European action to anticipate possible disruptions and to be able to respond promptly when they occur, improving transparency and solidarity between EU countries.
 
The Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, told MEPs that the new regulation would oblige each EU member to be fully prepared in case of gas disruption, both for prevention and in case of emergency.
 
It would set up a common standard defining the risk of disruption for each country, and then national authorities should ensure the infrastructure to respond to a possible crisis, setting up preventive as well as emergency plans.
 
The draft legislation would oblige countries to collaborate closely in a crisis, sharing national supplies to help the most vulnerable countries, also when the disruption is caused by third countries like last year.
 
“Are we prepared for another winter?'
 
MEPs expressed their worries for a new possible crisis: Latvian EPP Member Krišjānis Kariņš warned the hearing that ”Latvia depends 100% on Russian gas, are we prepared for another winter?“ he asked. Mr Piebalgs answered that ”we're prepared to face a crisis, but it is better to avoid it“.
 
MEPs also insisted on the need to have a truly common European energy policy: ”The only way to counter the non-European attitudes of some member states is to have a strong EU policy that would force them to follow the Commission's way“ said Italian Socialist Patrizia Toia.
 
Finally, several MEPs raised the concern that alternative projects to Nabucco, the EU funded gas pipeline, could jeopardize European efforts to have a common policy. ”The Nord stream project raises environmental and security concerns“ warned Swedish Liberal MEP Lena Ek.
 
The debate on gas pipelines and the state of play of the Nabucco pipeline project will be on the agenda of the Plenary session which opens on 16 September.