Questioned about whether the EU will purchase more gas from the US in the future, following Trump’s suggestion that he could lower tariffs if the EU bought 350 billion dollars (approximately 319.5 billion euros) in energy from the US, Jørgensen said that “it is clearly a possibility.”
The commissioner, however, emphasized that the EU does not want to create new dependencies and favors self-sufficiency and diversification.
“We do not want to be in the hands of anyone who could cut off our access to energy (…), we do not want to continue to be in such a dependent situation,” said Jørgensen regarding the EU’s imports of Russian gas before the invasion of Ukraine, during the Energy Summit 2025 forum held in Brussels.
The Danish social democrat added that the first thing the EU must do is reduce fossil fuel dependency through a production system based on electrification and renewable energies, as well as improving energy efficiency and networks, which could save the EU up to 50 billion euros per year.
“But, in the coming years, we will continue to need fossil fuels and gas, so we must diversify,” he added.
Jørgensen stressed that the EU must be “grateful, especially to Norway, the US, and Qatar, for supplying gas to the EU since Russia invaded Ukraine.”
“If they hadn’t done so in the last two years, we wouldn’t have been able to reduce dependency so much,” said the commissioner, who noted that EU imports of Russian gas have fallen from 45% to about 13%, although he emphasized that more needs to be done.
