"The EU crisis plan prepared at the beginning of the year may be needed at any time and member states must be ready to implement their national plans," Delfi was quoted as saying.

Simson said that last week the EU reached an agreement to increase gas supplies with Israel and Egypt, deepened cooperation with Norway, "at the finish line" talks with Azerbaijan.

According to her, the "big differences" among the energy ministers of the EU countries are issues related to further changes in the energy market, including the extension of the use of nuclear energy.

"The Commission cannot make decisions on the latter issue for any state, the choice of energy sources under the founding European treaties is a sovereign right of the member states," Simson said.

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree according to which payment for Russian pipeline gas supplied after April 1, 2022 to a foreign counterparty specified in the decree, should be made exclusively in rubles.

At the end of May, it was reported that Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands had lost the opportunity to receive Russian gas due to their refusal to accept the new payment system.

On June 14, Gazprom announced that it had been forced to cut gas supplies to Nord Stream compared to the plan due to the untimely return of gas pumping units from repairs by Siemens and the detected technical malfunctions of the engines.

On June 15, Gazprom said it had to shut down another Siemens gas turbine engine on the Nord Stream pipeline.

In July, Nord Stream will completely stop transportation due to scheduled maintenance, and this will further exacerbate the shortage of gas on the market.