Brussels and Washington condemn Russia's energy "blackmail" and urge to reduce gas imports

BRUSSELS, 24 May. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The European Commission and the Government of the United States have denounced this Tuesday the "blackmail" of Russia with the energy supply, after cutting off the flow of gas to Member States such as Finland, Poland and Bulgaria, and have urged steps to reduce the imports from Russia.

"Russia has proven to be an unreliable energy supplier to Europe with unjustified and unacceptable actions, such as cutting electricity and natural gas to Finland, stopping natural gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria, and threatening similar actions against other European nations." , have criticized the European Commission and the White House in a joint statement.

In this sense, Brussels and Washington condemn the use of energy as "blackmail" and reaffirm their commitment to strengthening Europe's energy security. Thus, they recall that Finland will be supplied with liquefied gas imported from the United States from the end of this year, a step that has accelerated the war in Ukraine.

Likewise, the community administration and the North American administration urge "taking decisive action" to reduce Russian energy imports and point out that they are already working to diversify the gas supply to Europe, in addition to improving energy efficiency and promoting clean energy, reducing the demand for fossil fuels.

Last March, just one month after the start of the war in Ukraine, the EU and the United States closed an agreement to increase the supply of liquefied natural gas by 68% in 2022, within the framework of joint measures to respond to Moscow's military offensive.

This agreement will mean an additional supply of 15,000 million cubic meters (15 bcm) this year to Europe and fits with the plans of Brussels to reduce Russian gas imports by two thirds annually and achieve the objective of cutting the dependence of the community market on Russian fossil fuels in 2030.