BELGRADE, August 25. /TASS/. Europe will face a cataclysm due to the global electricity crisis, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday.

"[French President Emmanuel] Macron has warned his nationals that the time of prosperity is gone, which is evident. <…> Every day, we have to deal with the crisis, and I would tell you that Europe’s largest countries will face electricity outages. <…> As far as I understand, Vienna is suspending businesses from December-January because electricity bills have gone up four-fold. A cataclysm is looming large," he said in an address to the nation.

He said earlier that Serbia would be in a state of an undeclared emergency regime in the next eight months, with the situation being the most difficult in the past decade. The president noted that electricity generation by hydropower plants has been suspended due to the hot weather, sending electricity prices up. In his words, it is becoming more and more difficult to cope with such situation, since cheap Russian gas satisfies only 62% of the country’s demand.

Earlier, Vucic did not rule out that the stock exchange price on natural gas may reach 6,000 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters in wintertime. He said that his telephone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin had yielded an agreement on a three-year gas contract. The gas price will be calculated according to the oil formula and will stand at from 360 to 410 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.