European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called this preliminary agreement the beginning of “a new era – the era of Europe’s full energy independence from Russia.”
Commenting on the agreement on December 2, von der Leyen said: “Many people thought it was impossible. But the numbers speak for themselves. Today, Russian gas imports – LNG and pipeline gas – have fallen from 45% to 13%, coal imports from 51% to zero, and crude oil imports from 26% to 2%.”
The head of the European Commission emphasized that the EU’s reduction in imports of Russian fossil fuels has led to a decrease in the revenues that Russia is using to wage war against Ukraine. And she gave figures of Europe’s “contribution” to the reduction of these revenues: “At the beginning of the war, we paid Russia 12 billion euros a month for fossil fuels, and now this amount has decreased to 1.5 billion euros a month, which is still too much, and we are striving to reduce it to zero”.
It remains to be seen whether EU structures will be able to agree on a final divestment from Russian fuel by the end of 2027. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Moscow last week to negotiate further oil and gas supplies from Russia. He said he is ready to sue the EU if Hungary is forced to give up energy from Russia.
