By Julia Payne
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s likely new energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, wants to accelerate the end of the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, he told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday.
“In my first 100 days, I will present a plan on how to speed-up ending our reliance on Russian gas before 2027,” he said.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has tasked Jorgensen with lowering energy prices to try to restore Europe’s industrial competitiveness, decarbonise the economy and end the bloc’s remaining Russian energy imports.
He is expected to be confirmed in his new post in the coming weeks.
“We do have a challenge, our industry is suffering. They are paying two or three times as much for energy as in the U.S. and China…ordinary people are struggling to pay their bills,” Jorgensen said, adding it was largely due to the war in Ukraine.
He said the EU needed to deploy more renewable energy, which would require extending grids, boosting digitalisation and new storage technology, and faster permitting.
To help decarbonise, Jorgensen also said nuclear energy was essential.
Expanding nuclear energy has been a divisive issue in the bloc with two opposing camps – one in favour backed by France and the other led by Germany.
The EU set itself a non-binding goal to end Russian gas imports by 2027 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
However, some member states have done little to diversify and Russian gas imports rose last year.
“We used to get 45% of our gas from Russia, now we are down to 18% but 18% is still too much we need to be 100% independent of Russian fuel,” Jorgensen said.
The EU banned imports of Russian oil with a few exceptions in 2022 but stopped short of placing any restrictions on gas. In June, countries took a first step and banned Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) trans-shipments through European ports.
While some member states seek tighter measures, Russia-friendly Hungary is negotiating with Russia’s Gazprom to increase flows via the TurkStream pipeline in 2025.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; editing by Barbara Lewis)
