The European Union’s Energy Ministers discussed the energy situation in the European Union as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the next steps after Gazprom's suspension of gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, during an extraordinary meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Brussels on Monday.

Cyprus was represented by permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Marios Panagides. Panagides explained during his intervention, that although Cyprus is the member state with the lowest dependence on Russian natural gas, it is nevertheless affected due to the significant increases in energy prices in general.

Panagides also said that Cyprus supports the measures promoted by the EU for its energy security, including the proposal for a Regulation on gas storage and an EU Platform for Common Procurement. 

According to a statement from the Ministry of Energy, the member states expressed full solidarity and readiness to assist affected partners and exchanged views on securing the EU's energy supply from reliable suppliers, on the transit of natural gas and the storage of gas reserves, particularly in view of the coming winter.

The level of EU preparedness, solidarity measures and possible emergency measures in relation to the EU energy supply situation were also discussed.

In his intervention Panagides also referred to the importance of exploiting the energy reserves of the member states, including the natural gas reserves of Cyprus, and highlighted Cyprus' efforts to create synergies with Greece, Israel and Egypt.

Panagides also referred to the measures related to the Green Transition, pointing out that Cyprus supports these measures. He pointed out though that the different starting points of each member states must be taken into account.