EU member states without natural gas storage facilities, such as Greece, will be required to store gas quantities representing 15 percent of annual consumption at existing gas storage facilities maintained by fellow member states by November 1, the European Commission has just announced.

In the lead-up, Brussels had issued an order requiring all EU member states with gas storage facilities to fill these at 90 percent of full capacity by November 1, in preparation for next winter. The EU is now taking steps to drastically reduce its reliance on Russian gas.

Governments in respective member states are responsible for the achievement of this objective and can impose fines and sanctions, according to the announcement.

The European Commission has notified it will conduct inspections to determine whether intermediate storage-capacity goals have been achieved. Warnings will be issued if discrepancies are found to be over two percent, followed by related talks with the respective member states. Lack of action a month after these talks have taken place will result in decisions from the European Commission, which the member states in question will need to adopt.