Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer criticized the European Commission, saying that it was condemning member states to failure with contradictory instructions on gas purchases, while at the same time not fulfilling its own promises.

According to him, the EC head asked members not to compete with each other on global gas markets, and advised Austria to buy gas to replenish its gas reserves. At the same time, the promised platform to coordinate gas purchases in the EU was never implemented.

"We are seeing many announcements by the European Commission but very little implementation,” he told reporters. “This common buying platform would be more important than ever," he told reporters.

He said that imposing an embargo on Russian gas is impossible. According to him, sanctions should hit those against whom they are imposed, not those who imposed them. Therefore, Austria's position is clear that the gas embargo is impossible because of the dependence of the Austrian and German economies on Russian gas. He noted that a tilt of the German economy would take Austria with it and lead to mass unemployment.