The European Union has developed a plan to phase out Russian gas, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said on the Europe 1/CNews TV channel, ZN.ua reports.
“We import 155 billion cubic meters a year from Russia. We will have to get rid of Russian gas… Putin is using gas to divide us, he has done everything for many years to divide Europe,” Breton said.
In 2021, about 45% of EU natural gas imports came from Russia.
According to the European Commissioner, it is necessary to quickly abandon the import of Russian gas. In particular, the EU plans to increase purchases of liquefied natural gas from the US and Qatar, as well as expand the capacity of green energy.
“We developed a plan with my teams,” Breton said.
The new plan will include “50 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas imports from the US or Qatar, an additional 10 billion from existing pipelines, acceleration of offshore wind turbines and photovoltaic panels totaling 25 billion cubic meters,” he said. Restarting coal-fired power plants is also an option under consideration.
