At the EU Energy Summit organised by the European Business Summit on Tuesday 8 April, European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen reiterated that imports of fossil fuels, including natural gas from countries such as the United States, will be necessary for the EU’s security of supply for some years to come.
Stressing the need to diversify supplies, the Commissioner said that, in the context of the energy crisis, we should be “very grateful, in particular, to Norway, the United States and Qatar for supplying us with gas”. “If they had not done so over the last two years, we would not have been able to reduce our dependence as we have”, he insisted, referring to Russian gas imports.
He also acknowledged that there was a real possibility that the EU could import more liquefied natural gas from the US, citing its recent dealings with US companies (see EUROPE 13598/13). He pointed out, however, that the Commission could not act as a market player, but was in a position to facilitate gas trade and provide political support for the diversification of supplies.
On the subject of high energy prices in the EU, the Commissioner again raised the issue of taxation, explaining that Member States had the opportunity to bring down energy prices by acting on taxation “because it will be an investment in their own competitiveness”. He added that too few Member States today have a cost-effective tariff system.
He stressed, among other things, the importance of developing renewable energies to reduce costs and ensure the EU’s security of supply, as well as expanding networks, digitising them and combining them with storage solutions. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)