EGN NEWS DESK
“First of all: interact,” von der Leyen mentioned, when requested about the best way to keep away from Trump’s tariffs, referring to her telephone name with the president-elect. “Secondly, talk about widespread pursuits […] after which go into negotiations.”
Stressing that the EU nonetheless buys important quantities of vitality from Russia, von der Leyen requested: “Why not exchange it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our vitality costs? It’s one thing the place we will get right into a dialogue, additionally [where] our commerce deficit is anxious.”
It is probably going that von der Leyen is taking her inspiration for a possible deal from her predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker, who engineered a extremely beauty truce with Trump in 2018.
During the primary Trump time period, Juncker averted extra tariffs by assuring the U.S. president that Europe would facilitate extra imports of liquefied pure gasoline (and extra American soybeans.) In truth, the European Commission has no actual energy in figuring out European corporations’ purchases of LNG and soybeans, however Trump was pleased to simply accept the political theater of parading knowledge that European purchases have been going up.
In the primary half of this yr, the U.S. already offered round 48 % of the EU’s LNG imports, in comparison with Russia’s 16 %.
Laurent Ruseckas, government director for gasoline markets at commodities large S&P Global, mentioned any such deal on fossil fuels was prone to be extra about politics than vitality.
“The EU does not purchase LNG — there is a world LNG market and LNG patrons have their very own contracts,” he mentioned. “It’s definitely doable to do a memorandum of understanding to speak about growing purchases however in the end up to now that is been a solution to put a political wrapper round one thing that was delivered by the market. And the EU is shopping for as a lot LNG at present because the market wants.”
According to the EU’s personal vitality watchdog, ACER, the bloc’s demand for LNG is “prone to attain its peak in 2024” as use of carbon-heavy vitality declines and inexperienced options grow to be obtainable.
