Prague, June 23 (FN Agency) The Czech Republic’s energy sovereignty is the country’s key goal for the near future, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in an address to the people. “The deficit spiral rapidly unfolded in conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. But the military operations launched by the Russian Federation in Ukraine brought much greater economic problems. This led, in particular, to a sharp increase in prices for energy supplies, in which we are extremely dependent on Russia,” Fiala said. “Nevertheless, the government of the republic aims to stabilize the situation, find a way to energy sovereignty, as well as to help both families and firms to cope with the growing high cost, primarily for heat sources,” he said.
Among the measures taken by the cabinet to reduce dependence on Russia in the supply of gas and oil, the prime minister named the agreements reached in recent weeks on expanding the capacity of the TAL pipeline, through which oil could be supplied to the Czech Republic from South-Western Europe, the construction of the Polish-Czech gas pipeline, obtaining part of the capacity of the offshore LNG terminal in the Netherlands, as well as the earlier decision to start the construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant with the exclusion of Russian and Chinese companies from it. According to Fiala, gas storage facilities are being actively filled by the new season. For the first time in history, they were already two-thirds full at the end of June. The prime minister also announced the cabinet’s decision on Wednesday to allocate about $2.87 billion directly to cover at least part of household and business electricity costs in the new heating season. Two-thirds of this amount is designed specifically to help families.