Ahead of the informal meeting of EU energy ministers on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September (see EUROPE 13700/6), the environmental NGO network CAN Europe has warned ministers about the trade agreement concluded between the European Union and the United States at the end of July, which it considers to be particularly “problematic” from an energy point of view (see EUROPE 13694/15, 12691/7).
“This deal locks the EU into additional volumes of costly and methane-intensive LNG imports from the United States over the next three years. From both a climate and energy security perspective, this direction is gravely troubling”, wrote the NGO coalition in a press release.
It also explains that the withdrawal of Russian gas imports “should not be an argument” to focus solely on the diversification of gas supplies and an increase in LNG imports from the United States or other countries.
“On the contrary, the EU should put in place binding measures that ensure a continuation of the gas demand reduction curve observed in the EU over the last two years”. According to the network, these measures could, for example, be anchored in the diversification plans proposed by the European Commission in its legislative proposal to achieve a complete shift away from Russian gas, which is currently under negotiation (see EUROPE 13699/5). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)