A key lesson the EU has drawn from the war in Ukraine is to avoid the weaponization of gas. That has incentivized the bloc to diversify its supply while reducing its gas demand and accelerating the energy transition to guarantee its energy security. But Brussels is coming under growing pressure from Washington ahead of further EU-US trade talks, with major policy divisions emerging over the EU's energy transition. The US appears to be linking continued commitment to European security to more favorable US trade terms and leaning on Europe to revise its net-zero ambitions.
Russian Fossil Fuel Phaseout
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday that the EU would look “at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster” as part of its upcoming 19th package of sanctions against Russia. Brussels has been looking to phase out all Russian oil and gas imports by end-2027. But EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen stood firm on this when meeting US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday, saying afterwards that the bloc was sticking to its "very, very ambitious" deadline of early 2028.
Still, there are calls within the EU to adopt additional measures to squeeze Russia’s oil export revenues, as revealed by a draft Franco-German document seen by Energy Intelligence. These include targeting “third state actors” that enable sanctions to be circumvented by designating refineries responsible for exporting Russian oil to the EU.
