29/07/2022 (Agence Europe) – More than 50 French elected representatives from various political affiliations urged the European Commission to abandon its gas memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan on Friday 29 July in an op-ed published in the newspaper Le Monde. Announced in Baku on 18 July, the MoU provides for a doubling of the EU’s fossil gas imports from Azerbaijan by 2027. It is intended to contribute to the EU’s efforts to diversify its sources of gas supply and thus decrease its energy dependence on Russia. However, “this initiative continues the frantic race to exploit our planet’s resources (and) places the European Union in a new position of dependence on a State with bellicose aspirations”, say the signatories of the op-ed. In particular, they point to [Azerbaijan’s] “frantic race for arms financing that exterminates Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and in the Republic of Armenia”. (DG)