Following his meeting in Brussels with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday 11 September, Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen said he was “pleased that the American administration agrees that we need to put more pressure on Russia” to counter its war of aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2022.
After an hour-long exchange with his counterpart, Mr Jørgensen explained to the press that the discussions had focused precisely on how to exert this pressure with regard to energy. In particular, the two parties will be working together on technical issues and promoting meetings between companies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The trade agreement that the EU signed with the White House on 27 July includes a commitment to purchase $750 billion worth of US energy every year (see EUROPE 13690/1).
Although this plan has been deemed “unrealistic” and damaging to the environment by a number of European experts and political figures (see EUROPE 13702/5, 13690/1), the Commission has maintained its argument that these American energy imports will make it possible to free the EU from the last remaining Russian dependencies.
Mr Jørgensen explained that the purpose of this bilateral exchange had not been to discuss the 19th package of sanctions against Russia (see EUROPE 13706/2). However, he reiterated his determination to complete the REPowerEU Regulation for a complete phase-out of Russian gas by 1 January 2028 (see EUROPE 13703/1).
The Regulation is currently being negotiated by the EU Council, but Slovakia and Hungary, which are still heavily dependent on Russian energy imports - particularly oil - remain firmly opposed to it (see EUROPE 13641/28).
However, the United States, which is close to Viktor Orbán’s government, expects the EU to put an urgent end to its Russian imports, as Mr Wright explained in an interview with the Financial Times on 8 September.
The 2028 deadline for the withdrawal of Russian gas has been maintained. Mr Jørgensen said he was confident that an agreement could be reached “quite soon” on the REPowerEU Regulation. It can be adopted by qualified majority, unlike the sanctions adopted by unanimity of the Member States. However, the Commissioner does not believe that the date for the complete abandonment of Russian gas contracts can be brought forward, pointing out that the current deadlines were “extremely ambitious”.
“Longer-term contracts obviously take a little longer for companies to terminate, and we also need to ensure that we have security of supply”, he told reporters.
He also explained that the EU had no intention of abolishing several of its climate and environmental laws, such as the regulation against methane emissions (see EUROPE 13453/26), which has been heavily criticised by the United States.
However, “what we are going to do is make sure that the way in which this is implemented takes into account the particular production practices in the United States, which are different from those we have in Europe”, he summarised. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)