Germany Deliberately Refrained From Sanctioning Russian Gas - Scholz

BERLIN (Sputnik) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country did not target Russian gas supplies with sanctions since many states depended on them.

"We did not impose sanctions on gas. There are no sanctions against gas. Neither Germany, nor the EU, nor the G7 countries have imposed sanctions," Scholz said live on NDR vor Ort on Friday, specifying that Germany "only received half of the gas from Russia. Others are 80-90% dependent."

Since 2021, energy prices in EU countries have been surging as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow by the West, energy prices have accelerated the growth, pushing many European governments to resort to contingency measures.

The EU has been looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas as it has pledged to end its dependence on energy supplies from Russia.

On October 18, the European Commission proposed a new package of measures to fight increasing energy prices, which include mandatory joint purchases of 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas.

The measure is designed to fill EU storage facilities by the winter of 2023-2024, establish a mechanism to limit excessively high prices at the Title Transfer Facility when needed, and create a price benchmark for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. The new proposals are now to be agreed by the EU member states.

In early September, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced plans to build a fifth floating terminal in Germany so the country could import more LNG from other countries to replace Russian pipeline gas.

Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a government paper, that Germany is considering setting up a state-backed fund to help the country secure and diversify supplies of raw materials, amid Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.