Not one molecule! EU rules out relaxing Russian gas ban to ease energy crisis

Not one molecule! EU rules out relaxing Russian gas ban to ease energy crisis BRUSSELS — The European Union won’t give in to pressure to re-engage with Russia to offset surging energy prices triggered by the war in Iran, the bloc’s energy chief told reporters on Monday. “We’ve decided in the European Union that we do not want to re-import Russian energy,” Dan Jørgensen, the EU commissioner for energy, said at the sidelines of a summit of energy ministers in Brussels. “It’s extremely important that we stick to this line — we cannot in Europe help indirectly finance Russia’s brutal, illegal war,” he said. The comments come as a growing chorus 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 announce a similar ban on oil next month. “We’ve been far too long dependent on energy from Russia, making it possible for Putin to blackmail us with energy, making it possible for Putin to weaponize energy against us, and we are determined to stay on course with these issues,” Jørgensen added. “It would be a mistake for us to repeat what we did in the past. In the future, we will not import as much as one molecule from Russia.” 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 last week. On Sunday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said the EU ought to negotiate with Russia to eventually “regain access to cheap energy.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has also offered to resume gas trade with the bloc, and Washington has temporarily lifted its own sanctions on the country. Jørgensen also ruled out long-term, structural changes to EU energy policy to deal with soaring prices, including reforming the electricity market design, as POLITICO reported on Sunday. Commission President Urusula von der Leyen echoed the sentiment earlier this month, saying returning to Russian oil and gas would be a “strategic blunder.”