The municipality of the Belgian city of The Hague plans to seek a temporary exemption from the sanctions regime imposed by the European Union on Russia. It is reported by Reuters, citing an open letter of a member of the municipality Saskia Breuness.
The text of the letter sent to the city council notes that Russia’s Gazprom is the municipality’s current gas supplier. However, EU sanctions against Russia foresee that national governments and other public authorities will terminate previous contracts with Russian companies by 10 October 2022. This, in turn, suggests that the municipality of The Hague must find an alternative to the current agreement with Gazprom.
Saskia Breuijnes, the author of the letter, said that the respective tenders were carried out in June and July, but no replacement for the Russian supplier had yet been found. A parallel tender for gas supply from 1 January 2023 is underway.
“To cover the period from 10 October 2022 to 1 January 2023, an exemption from European sanctions is required. <…> This is necessary in order to guarantee security of supply,” the letter said.
The municipality reportedly intends to apply to the Ministry of Economy and Climate Policy for a temporary exemption from the sanctions against Russia.
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