Von der Leyen: Rising indications that the Kremlin is using gas as a political tool

Despite record demand and high gas prices in European markets, Russia’s Gazprom is exporting historically low volumes of gas to the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a Europe 2022 conference in Brussels today Euractiv website.

The commission’s chairman said Europe was in the midst of an energy crisis, in part due to high energy costs, but stressed that Gazprom was “not interested in increasing supply to us at this time, despite high prices and huge demand”. .

“There is growing evidence that the Kremlin continues to use gas supplies as a political tool,” von der Leyen said, acknowledging the EU ‘s dependence on Russian gas. “Europe imports 90% of its gas,” she said. and more than 40% of it comes from Russia. ”

“We need to become independent of this and work consistently with reliable gas suppliers,” he told conference attendees as the EU increasingly seeks to diversify its gas supply.

Brussels has already begun to look to larger supplies of liquefied natural gas from the US, but also from other sources.

Commenting on the EU-US Energy Council meeting in Washington today, the President of the Commission said: “We are building an energy security partnership with the United States. This is mainly about more LNG supplies.”

“We are talking to other gas suppliers, for example Norway, to increase their supplies to Europe,” added von der Leyen.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ

Source: Capital

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