The German and Austrian governments yesterday signed an agreement to support each other in the event of a gas supply crisis.
The deal, signed between Austrian climate protection minister Leonore Gewessler and parliamentary state secretary to the economy minister Thomas Bareiss, is the second of its kind, following a German-Danish agreement on solidarity gas deliveries at the end of last year.
The agreement complies with the implementation of the amended European regulation on secure gas supply. The regulation aims to reduce the dependence of individual EU member states on gas supply from outside Europe and to increase their resilience to delivery failures. It obliges all member states whose gas networks are connected directly or through a third country to conclude bilateral agreements on solidarity gas deliveries. These deliveries are meant as a last resort in the event of an extreme gas shortage to ensure supply to households, district heating systems and basic social facilities in the affected country.
The agreement defines how Austria and Germany can "help each other quickly" in this extremely unlikely scenario, Bareiss said.
