EU won’t reverse Russian gas ban or slow down green transition, says energy chief

BRUSSELS — The European Union will not backtrack on its ban on Russian fossil fuel imports or slow down its shift to renewables, even as the war in Iran sends energy costs soaring, Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Tuesday.

“There is no road back to dependency on Russian energy,” Jørgensen said at a panel at POLITICO’s Competitive Europe Summit. “We should not again ever import as much as one molecule.”

Jørgensen argued Europe has been for “too long” indirectly financing Russia’s war against Ukraine by buying Russian energy. “Russia has blackmailed member states … They have weaponized energy against us,” he said.

His remarks come as a small group of EU leaders push for a rethink of the bloc’s relationship with Russia, which threatens to upend the implementation of the EU’s historic phase-out of Russian gas. The Commission is set to propose a similar ban on oil later this year.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been among the most vocal advocates for revived Russian trade, calling on the EU to suspend sanctions on Moscow, while Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said the EU ought to negotiate with Russia to eventually “regain access to cheap energy.”

Jørgensen argued Europe is now in a far stronger position than during the 2022 energy crisis, when Russia supplied roughly 45 percent of the bloc’s gas. That dependence has since dropped sharply to around 10 percent.

“We were so vulnerable, and we never want to be in such a vulnerable situation again,” he said.

While acknowledging the political backlash against climate rules and the need for short-term support for households and industry, Jørgensen insisted support for renewables was strong.

“There is not any real discussion in Europe on whether we need more renewables and to move away from this dependency,” he said.