EU’s new energy chief vows to end Russian fuel ties for good

Dan Jørgensen is making it his “main priority” to craft a plan that will finally sever all European Union energy links with Russia. 

In his first interview since taking office as the EU’s new energy chief, Jørgensen warned that the EU is faltering in its multiyear campaign to shun Russian fuel and needed a plan to get things back on track.

He pointed to the EU’s rising purchases of Russian liquified natural gas as a particular concern — and a reverse of the bloc’s downward trajectory. Additionally, five EU countries still rely on Russia for nuclear fuel.

“To have been able to bring down our dependency to such an extent that we have is actually quite an accomplishment,” Jørgensen said, speaking from his largely as-yet-unfurnished office in the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters. 

But “it’s obvious to everybody that something new needs to happen because … now it’s beginning to go in the wrong direction,” he added, saying he would roll out “a tangible roadmap that will include efficient tools and means for us to solve the remaining part of the problem.”

Jørgensen said his plan will focus “on gas primarily, but also oil and nuclear,” and will land within the first 100 days of his taking office, effectively giving himself a mid-March deadline.

The plan represents the next step in the EU’s massive effort to change how it powers life for 450 million people after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The bloc has already imposed a blanket ban on Moscow’s seaborne coal and oil exports while slashing its dependence on pipeline gas supplies by roughly two-thirds.

But the efforts have plateaued in recent months. In 2024, the EU is even expected to import roughly 10 percent more LNG from Russia than in 2023, according to the commodities platform Kpler. 

Efforts to tackle these remaining links won’t be easy. 

Any plan to eliminate Russian energy from the bloc by 2027 — the informal deadline set by the bloc after the all-out war — will likely draw strong resistance from countries still heavily dependent on Moscow for imports. In particular, Hungary and Slovakia — headed by Russia-friendly leaders Viktor Órban and Robert Fico — have historically opposed new energy restrictions.

Jørgensen pointed to his experience as Denmark’s climate minister in 2022 when he attended eight emergency summits of EU energy ministers as the bloc faced a sweeping gas price crisis. 

Those negotiations, he said, gave him “some experience in collaborating with colleagues … taking into account [that] there are different circumstances.”

He will also have significant political support behind his push. Just this week, 10 EU capitals jointly called for sanctions on Moscow’s nuclear and LNG sectors. 

Jørgensen’s proposal will also likely land weeks after the end of a long-term gas transit agreement that allows mostly Central European countries to continue importing Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine. While several countries are discussing potential workarounds to keep the gas flowing, Jørgensen said he expects the deal to expire.

“We are preparing for the situation that it will finish and … it’s one more reason why it’s important for us to have this roadmap very soon,” he said, echoing the EU executive’s long-running position on the 2019 Moscow-Kyiv deal.

The EU’s relationship with a Donald Trump-led United States will also play into Jørgensen’s energy work, given Europe leaned on the U.S. for LNG as it pulled back from Russia. The U.S. is now the bloc’s second-largest gas supplier. 

LNG imports will be “certainly one of the first things we have to discuss” with the incoming U.S. administration, Jørgensen said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already suggested the EU could buy up more American fuel as a way to avoid a potential trade war with the bombastic Republican leader, who has vowed to end a pause on new U.S. LNG export permits.

“We need to be mindful that we could not have done the decrease in dependency from Russia without energy from … the U.S,” Jørgensen said. “They really have been our friends and I hope, of course, that we will continue to be friends.”