EU Issues Ultimatum to Russia Over Gas Supply Cuts

Wake up folks. We're so far past Republicans vs. Democrats.

The EU gave Russia 24 hours to restore gas supplies last night after all deliveries to Ukraine were halted in a dispute over unpaid bills.

As 17 European countries reported cuts to supplies, the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine were warned to stop treating Europe's gas supply as a 'hostage'.

Significantly, the EU failed to spell out what action it planned to take if its warning was ignored.

As millions of people struggled to cope in sub-zero temperatures, it has emerged that gas prices could soar in Britain if there is not a swift resolution to the crisis.

Moscow pulled the plug on three major pipelines after a pricing dispute with Ukraine.
Supplies have dwindled throughout this week and today Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic confirmed their pipelines were empty.

Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey are already out of gas.

Italy suffered a 90 per cent plunge, France was down 70 per cent and Germany was affected for the first time. Britain, however, is unlikely to run out of gas as only two per cent of supplies come from Russia which can be replaced from other sources if necessary.

The cutoff has also showed the first signs of hitting the European economy as the Hungarian unit of the Japanese automaker Suzuki said it was halting production because of restrictions on industrial users of gas.