“The two largest buyers of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), France and Belgium refuse to support the plan proposed by the European Commission to refuse gas supplies from the Russian Federation. Source: “European Truth” with reference to the publication of Politico Details: According to the publication, these countries require additional guarantees on the economic and legal consequences of this step before making a decision.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: “European Truth” with reference to the publication of Politico
Details: According to the publication, these countries require additional guarantees on the economic and legal consequences of this step before making a decision.
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In particular, in France, which buys Russian LNGs, they say that they prefer a strategy for finding alternative deliveries.
Belgium, which ranks second, wants to get a report with a detailed description of economic consequences before making a decision.
“We are protecting the European diversification strategy … which is already on the table,” said France’s Energy Minister Mark Ferrachci in an interview with Politico, referring to the French plan to replace Russian supplies with catarrh products.
The French Minister also raised the issue of “legal certainty” of Brussels’s proposals, fearing that private firms may face Russian lawsuits about unfulfilled contracts.
The French Totalenergies, for example, is currently related to the contract for delivery with the Russian “novate” by 2032, and also has a 20 percent share in the Yamal project, which controls the LNG in Siberia.
Belgium, who intends to continue to receive and store the Russian LNG until 2035, also wants the European Commission to dispel its concerns.
Before the EU has submitted its proposals, “we ask the commission to submit an in -depth assessment of the impact” of these measures, said Belgium Energy Minister Mattier Biei.
According to him, the country will conduct technical negotiations on the impact of measures on Belgian infrastructure of LNG.
The hesitation of France and Belgium contradicts the positions of other large importers of the Russian LNG in the EU: Spain and the Netherlands. Both countries have stated that they were ready to support the future plan.
Last year, these four countries imported 16.77 million tons of Russian liquefied gas, according to the KPLER product platform, which is 97% of the total EU imports and more than half of Moscow’s world exports. Together, they spent more than 6 billion euros on the purchase of LNG from Russia.
Supporting from all four of these countries will be crucial to the European Commission, since Hungary and Slovakia will probably try to disrupt the ban, seeking to continue to buy Russian energy.
In addition, many politicians and representatives of the EU industry call to return to the supply of Russian energy resources after the end of the Russian war against Ukraine, becoming more likely of electricity prices in Europe.
Currently, EU countries are considering economic and legal analysis within the entire Union.
One of the EU representatives stated that the commission prepares “a document that will analyze the impact of” these measures.
What was before:
- The European Commission presented a road card to the complete cessation of Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, as well as to minimize Russian oil imports.
- Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Siyarto criticized this plan, declaring an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty.
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo also said that he did not support the proposed road card of the European Commission to stop importing Russian energy.
- Hungary and Slovakia are the only EU countries that rely on pipeline Russian gas and oil as the main source.