Source: European Parliament
A key pillar of the REPowerEU plan, setting out the EU’s path to phasing out Russian energy imports, entails the EU diversifying gas imports from global partners, including the United States (US).
The EU and its Member States have made great progress in recent years in terms of gas supply diversification and will continue to strive for a gas supply as diversified as possible, working with partners like Norway, the US, Mediterranean countries and other gas and liquified natural gas (LNG) suppliers worldwide, while accelerating its clean energy transition and stepping up work on affordability and sustainability.
Diversifying energy supplies also entails accelerating deployment of home-grown renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency, which improves the resilience and increase EU’s energy independence while advancing our climate objectives.
The Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Markets Package stipulates that contracts for unabated fossil gas cannot run beyond 31 December 2049[1].
Domestic energy production reduces dependence on external suppliers and reduces the exposure of the EU to external geopolitical instability. Therefore, domestic energy reinforces the security of energy supply of the EU.
Moreover, it is for Member States to decide their supply mix and the energy sources they want to develop, while complying with climate objectives.
Fossil fuel extraction is not eligible for EU financial support. Natural gas infrastructure other than those under Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2022/869 are not eligible for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility.
- [1] Article 31(3) of Directive (EU) 2024/1788 on common rules for the internal markets for renewable gas, natural gas and hydrogen.