by Jarrett Renshaw and Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union (EU) and the United States formalized an agreement on Friday on additional American deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe, while the leaders of the Twenty-Seven met in Brussels continue to discuss reducing the EU’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today we agreed on a joint US-European action plan to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels without jeopardizing the objectives in the fight against global warming, for example by developing renewable energies and reducing the consumption of hydrocarbons, explained Joe Biden during a brief speech alongside the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“The United States will work with its international partners and do its utmost to ensure that we make an additional 15 billion cubic meters of LNG available for Europe this year,” he said.
For Ursula von der Leyen, this is already “a big step” towards reducing Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.
In the longer term, the objective is for the additional volume of American LNG deliveries to reach around 50 billion cubic meters each year at least until 2030, it is specified in an information note distributed by the White House.
“This additional volume of 50 billion cubic meters per year will make it possible to replace a third of the quantity of Russian gas arriving in Europe today”, underlined the president of the European executive, underlining that with this agreement, Europe was on the “right track” to diversify its supply from “reliable and trustworthy” partners.
The announcement of this agreement during a visit by United States President Joe Biden to Brussels, comes the day after the holding of three summits in Brussels (NATO, G7 and EU) in the presence of Joe Biden, at the during which Western leaders announced increased military aid to Ukraine.
On the second day of the European Council, this Friday in Brussels, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven must discuss their options for reducing the energy bill of citizens and businesses, guaranteeing the bloc’s security of supply and reducing its dependence on of Russia.
The countries of the south of the European Union, including Greece and Spain, plead for a cap on energy prices, but other Member States, including Germany and the Netherlands, oppose such a measure.
The opportunity to impose an embargo on Russian hydrocarbons, like the United States and the United Kingdom, also divides Europeans but no decision should be taken on this subject this Friday.
The leaders of the Twenty-Seven should on the other hand undertake to pool gas purchases and the constitution of strategic stocks in anticipation of next winter.
(With contributions by Jan Strupczewski, written by John Chalmers and Ingrid Melander; French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Nicolas Delame and Jean-Michel Bélot)