The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen, has admitted that Russian gas purchases of the European Union since 2022 are equivalent to the price of 2,400 new f-35 fighters for the Kremlin and has committed to “do much more” to put an end to these imports because, otherwise, the block will be “indirectly helping the Putin war chest.”
This figure is equivalent to granting Russia enough funds to renew its fleet of combat aircraft with the latest generation model of the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
“In that period we have spent more money in Europe buying Russian fossils and energy than we have given to Ukraine in aid and subsidies,” said the Danish politician in an interview with the European Newsroom (ENR), although he has also stressed the “success” to reduce imports from 45% in 2022 to current 13%.
In this sense, he has assured that he maintains the ambition to guarantee the independence of the EU of the imports of Russian gas “as quickly as possible” despite the fact that the community executive has postponed without date the presentation of its strategy to achieve it, which was scheduled for March 26 after a previous delay.
“The plan has postponed, but the effort does not,” Jorgensen said, who has defended “there is no change in ambition” to put an end to Russian gas in the EU in 2027 and that his team works daily to “get rid of Russian oil”, although “it is not a simple matter”, because “if it had been easy, it would have been achieved three years ago.”
Jorgesen has advanced that this road map will arrive “soon”, despite his refusal to specify a date, and has reduced the importance of delays to publicize a plan that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised for her first hundred days of mandate.
“We are not talking about kicking the can and postponing it for months,” said the commissioner, who has asked for “patience” despite having exceeded the hundred days. “We are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we will do it as quickly as possible,” he said.
Precisely, he has justified that one of the reasons for the delay is the care that Brussels are taking on preventing this strategy from harming citizens and has evidenced the importance of diversifying the supply, a recommendation that not all member states have followed.
According to the commissioner, “that is also what made it possible that, when the Ukrainian gas traffic was interrupted on January 1, the markets did not react very strongly” despite “some effects on local prices.”
Jorgesen, who has also highlighted the importance of the green transition, has pointed out that “the good news” is that for the EU to significantly reduce energy prices, become independent from the imports of Russia and manage to decarbonize its economy “the tools are the same.”
“It is clear that in the future we will use less and less gas, because that is part of the decarbonization of our societies, but although quickly progressing in the right direction, there are still industries and homes that will depend on the gas for some years,” he said.
