EU scrambles to secure new energy suppliers to curb reliance on US
The EU is seeking new gas suppliers as growing reliance on US-sourced liquefied natural gas (LNG) and deteriorating relations with Washington have raised concerns over energy security.
The bloc has faced a surge in energy prices since reducing Russian oil and gas imports following the 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The shift away from comparatively inexpensive Russian pipeline gas has increased reliance on US energy, while legislation passed this week requires member states to halt all Russian deliveries by late 2027, leaving the EU exposed to supply risks.
Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters on Wednesday that “geopolitical turmoil” regarding Greenland has been a “wake-up call” for the region, which now relies on the US for more than half of its LNG supplies.
“There is a growing concern, which I share, that we risk replacing one dependency with another,” Jorgensen, Denmark’s representative in the European Commission, said. “We need to diversify it as much as possible,” he added, noting that he will travel to Canada, Qatar, and North African countries in the coming months to discuss supplies.
The autonomous Danish territory of Greenland has been at the center of a transatlantic rift since US President Donald Trump announced plans to annex it, citing its mineral wealth and strategic location, while initially refusing to rule out the use of force and threatening tariffs on opponents of the plan.
Trump has increasingly used energy as leverage in trade talks with the EU. Under a deal announced last July, the bloc agreed to buy $750 billion worth of US energy by 2028 to avert higher tariffs, a pledge critics call coercive.
Before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the EU imported 45% of its gas from Russia – the bloc’s largest foreign supplier since the end of the Cold War. Western sanctions and sabotage of key infrastructure have slashed Russian gas deliveries; however, purchases of Russian LNG by the bloc remain significant.
Reacting to the EU’s recent decision to ban all Russian gas imports, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this could turn member states into Washington’s “miserable slaves.”
