by Kate Abnett and Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union (EU) member states are keen to strike more gas deals by using their collective bargaining power to replace Russian supplies, draft EU summit conclusions show. Brussels.
The document, seen by Reuters, says the EU should quickly embark on bulk gas buying, a proposal suggested by the Commission last year to build up strategic reserves.
European countries should at the same time accelerate discussions with reliable suppliers “to secure gas supplies for the winter of 2023/2024 with a view to concluding long-term contracts”, can we read in the document, likely to be published. be modified before the approval of the leaders of the Twenty-Seven, who meet Thursday and Friday.
Russia, which was Europe’s biggest gas supplier before the war in Ukraine, has since halted the majority of its European deliveries, driving up energy prices and pushing EU countries to seek to secure additional deliveries to Algeria, Norway and the United States.
Brussels said the majority of Russian supplies should be offset by locally produced renewables and energy savings in a bid to meet climate change targets.
The EU is currently negotiating a legislative proposal which would prohibit countries from concluding contracts to import carbon dioxide-emitting gases beyond 2049, in order to prevent these contracts from frustrating the objective of carbon neutrality. 2050.
The Union has pledged to reduce its net emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and to eliminate them completely by 2050. According to its own estimates, total gas consumption would decrease thus 30% by 2030.
(Kate Abnett report, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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