European Union leaders agreed Friday to step up moves to cut energy dependency, notably on Russia, after events in Ukraine.
EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy said the bloc’s 28 leaders had agreed at a two-day summit to outline an energy security framework at their next top-level meeting in June.
“Reducing our energy dependency, especially in relation to Russia, was a key topic” at the summit talks, Van Rompuy said at a news conference.
“If we dont take action now, by 2035 we will be dependent for 80 percent of oil and gas,” he said.
Among measures to be taken will be the diversification of energy sources by promoting indigenous sources including renewables and nuclear energy and improving interconnections both across the bloc and with third countries.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, a key promoter of the measures, welcomed the move as a step to the EU making itself more “resilient and independent”.
“We should be looking at long-term energy diversification, security and resilience right across Europe and that is something which we will enthusiastically pursue,” said Cameron, whose country imports virtually no Russian gas.
But in all, over a quarter of the gas used by the European Union comes from Russia, accounting for 53 percent of Russia’s annual gas exports, with $24 billion (17 billion euros) a year.
“Russia needs Europe more than EU needs Russia,” Cameron said.
But for a number of eastern EU countries — Finland, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Baltic states — Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom is virtually the sole provider.
Many of these countries fear a tit-for-tat escalation of sanctions between Russia and the EU over the crisis in Crimea could lead to their gas supplies being affected.
– Gas security ‘very important’ –
Cameron said EU members needed to do more to develop their own reserves as well as their ability to use gas from overseas producers, including the United States.
“We need to make sure that shale gas can be imported by the EU and the inclusion of it in TTIP would make a difference,” Cameron said, referring to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a planned trade deal between the EU and the United States.
French President Francois Hollande said that it was “very important” that Europe guarantee its gas security and promised “a complete plan by June” outlining ways in which the EU can become less dependant on Russia.
The EU currently produces about a third of the natural gas it consumes, but this is forecast to drop as North Sea fields become depleted.
With North African supplies having been hit by outages due to violence and Middle East suppliers turning towards lucrative Asian markets, Europe actually became more dependent on Russian gas last year.
Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Russia had doubled the price of gas in his country to “punish Ukraine for its European choice.”
Yatsenyuk called on the EU to help Ukraine overhaul the country’s energy policy to end its reliance on Russian gas.
Lithuania, which is wholly reliant on Gazprom for its supplies, is developing a floating LNG gas terminal which, it hopes, will insulate the Baltic country from future disruptions of its gas supply.
Lithuania pays between 30 and 40 percent more for Russian natural gas than the EU average, with Estonia and Latvia not far behind.