The European Union's single currency fell below $0.99 on Monday, dropping to a 20-year low against the dollar. The euro sunk 0.70 percent to 0.9884 dollars at 0535 GMT on Monday, its lowest level since December 2002.

Since the beginning of the year, the euro has continued to fall against the dollar, weighed down by economic uncertainty and the war in Ukraine.

Russian gas giant Gazprom stated on Friday that the Nord Stream pipeline due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut indefinitely.

In addition to stopping for maintenance, the two strings of the pipeline are being tested for mechanical components and automation systems from July 11 to 21. 

European governments, markets, and companies, with the 10-day shutdown of gas flows, fear the pipeline closing down as the war in Ukraine goes on, or fear that Russia would extend the scheduled maintenance to reduce European gas supplies.

Russia, through Nord Stream 1, transports 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Last month, this flow was reduced by 40%, as Russia blamed the reduction on delays in returning equipment being repaired by Siemens Energy, a German company, in Canada. 

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline is highly significant for Europe. Running through the Baltic Sea to Germany, the gas pipeline supplied around a third of the Russian gas exports to Europe. Before its shutdown for maintenance last week, the pipeline was running at 20% of its capacity.

If the scheduled maintenance were to have an extension, plans to store quantities of Russian gas for the winter will be disrupted, worsening the current gas crisis in Europe. This has led to drastic measures and painful price hikes.

Prices all over Europe have been inflated by almost 400% due to the restricted gas flow from Russia, with expectations that they increase further after Moscow went back on its decision to continue pumping gas through Nord Stream 1 to Germany due to maintenance issues.

Surging costs of power linked to gas prices have already stunted the production of various industries, such as fertilizers and aluminum manufacturers, and prompted EU governments to increase their spending by billions in order to help their citizens.

The Ukraine war has led to an energy crisis across Europe, with August emerging as the month with the highest surging prices on record for power tariffs in the bloc, Rystad Energy said this week.

Meanwhile, Russia has underlined several times that it was not weaponizing energy and that the Western sanctions on it, as well as technical difficulties due to said sanctions, have been restricting the flow of gas and oil. Meanwhile, the sanctioning parties - essentially countries most damaged by the self-imposed sanctions - have been accusing Moscow of weaponizing its resources.

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