France and Belgium do not support plans to give up Russia’s gas / day

Before making a decision, these countries want additional guarantees for the economic and legal consequences of such action, the publication writes.

French Energy Minister Mark Fereci said in an interview with Politico that Paris supports the proposed EU strategy to diversify energy supply. At the same time, he indirectly points to French plans to replace Russia’s supplies from Qatar.

In turn, Belgium, the EU’s second -largest Russian gas buyer behind France, first wants to receive a report detailing the economic consequences of cessation of Russian supplies, the edition writes.

« Before submitting our proposals, we are asking the European Commission to submit a detailed assessment of the impact of these measures, » the newspaper quotes the Belgian Minister of Energy, Matthew Bie. He said Belgium would have technical talks on how the EU’s decision to abandon Russian energy resources would affect the infrastructure of Belgian liquefied natural gas.

Meanwhile, other EU -largest Russian liquefied natural gas imports – Spain and the Netherlands – are ready to support the upcoming EU decision to lift Russian gas procurement agreements, writes Politico.

According to Kpler, the energy market analytics company, in 2024, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain imported 16.77 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas from Russia. In total, Russia received more than six billion euros for sales of liquefied natural gas for these four EU countries last year.