An agreement stipulates that each State shall make "every effort" to limit its gas consumption by at least 15% between August 2022 and March 2023 from the average of the same period in the last five years.

The approval of the measure comes in the context of the implications of Russia's decision to reduce its gas supply, which until last year accounted for about 40% of gas imports into the EU.

On Friday, EU energy ministers reached a political agreement to cut gas demand before next winter. According to the Czech Republic, which holds the Federation's rotating presidency, the decision to reduce gas consumption by 15% will come into force from Tuesday.

The president explained in her Twitter account that "the agreement on reducing demand for gas has been formally approved. The text will be published in the Official Gazette early next week before coming into force a day after its promulgation. "

According to a European diplomatic source, the text will be published on Tuesday.

The agreement on the measure was the result of an emergency meeting of EU Energy Ministers on 26 July, since despite the opposition of one State, Hungary, which considered it "unjustifiable, unhelpful, unworkable and harmful", it had been unable to prevent its approval since that did not require the consensus of Member States.

For its part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on Member States to "prepare for the worst case scenario" in the event that Russia cuts off gas supplies altogether.

In the event of a "severe risk of shortage", an emergency mechanism would make it mandatory for the 27 States to reduce consumption by 15%, but this target would be subject to compulsory State realities, particularly the ability to export quantities of saved gas to countries that need it through a series of exceptions.

On the other hand, member States of the continental economic bloc will have to refill their inventory before winter.