Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.United States-led peace talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine have not caused the European Union to delay their plan to phase out imports of Russian fossil fuels, the EU’s Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told the European Newsroom (enr) in an interview published on Wednesday.
“The plan has been postponed, but the effort is not,” Jørgensen told reporters.
“We are every day working on getting rid of Russian oil, but it’s not an uncomplicated matter.”
European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen
The phase-out plan was originally scheduled for release on March 26, but was postponed by the Commission with no new date specified. Jørgensen had vowed to bring forward the roadmap in his first 100 days in office but this deadline has now been missed.
Speculation has surrounded the move that the EU was anxious not to disrupt the US-Russia peace talks on Ukraine with the future of the bloc’s economic relations with the Kremlin also in the balance.
In the aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission unveiled a major strategy called RePowerEU to become independent of Russian fossil fuel imports before 2030 and deny the Kremlin more revenue to wage war.
To do so, the EU plans to boost the production of renewable energy, improve energy conservation and source new fossil fuel imports from the US, Norway and others. Since then EU countries have banned imports of coal and, with some exemptions, crude oil from Russia and pledged to reduce other fossil fuel imports.
If the phase-out of Russian fossil fuel imports had been easy, “we would have just done it three years ago”, Jørgensen said. The Commissioner stressed that while no new date for the twice-delayed plan has been announced, the postponement would not drag on for months.
Still feeding Putin’s war chest
As well as the global geopolitical position to consider, the Commission must also take into account the EU member states that “will be mostly directly affected by a full cut-off of Russian gas”, Jørgensen said, a reference to Germany, the bloc’s largest economy and still a major importer of Russian fossil fuels like liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Two years on, the bloc has reduced imports of Russian gas substantially. The share of the EU’s gas supplies from Russia – including both pipeline gas and bottled liquefied natural gas (LNG) – has fallen from 45 percent in 2021 to 15 percent in 2023.
EU countries are also using less gas overall – meaning Russia’s remaining 15 percent share is of a much smaller whole. Norway and the US have become the bloc’s largest suppliers.
The Commissioner acknowledged the success of the energy shift but pointed out that the EU has spent “more money in Europe buying Russian fossils and energy than we’ve given Ukraine in help and subsidies” in the same period.
“We’ve spent an amount that equals the cost price of 2,400 new F-35 fighter jets,” he said, pointing out that the EU is “indirectly helping to fill Putin’s war chest,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “So we need to do more to become independent of Russian imports.”
Slovak gas transit spat
Jørgensen also stressed his commitment to resolving the dispute between Slovakia and Ukraine over the transfer of Russian gas. Since the start of the year, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been in dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, because he halted the transit of Russian gas, on which Slovakia is dependent.
Ukraine has accused countries that still buy Russian energy of helping fuel Moscow’s war machine. According to Fico, Ukraine’s decision to stop transiting Russian gas is not just an empty political gesture, but an extremely expensive move that will cost the EU billions of Euro.
Jørgensen said figures calculated by the Commission for the cost of Ukraine’s decision were “not the same” as the Slovak government’s data but said that the Brussels authority was always ready to assist EU member states should they raise a problem.
This article is published twice a week. The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr.