Lithuania urges EU to galvanise efforts to abandon Russian liquefied natural gas

Lithuania is urging the European Union to abandon Russian liquefied natural gas as soon as possible after May saw Europe import more natural gas from Russia than from the United States for the first time in two years.

As reported by Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, at an informal meeting of the Environment, Energy and Transport Council of the European Union in Hungary this week, Lithuania and 12 other EU member states urged the EU to continue discussions to find concrete ways to stop importing Russian liquefied natural gas and invited the European Commission to develop an action plan.

"We need to mobilise our efforts and look for measures to further diversify our energy supply and to phase out Russian LNG imports as soon as possible. Over the past two years, we have achieved significant results in reducing the use of fossil fuels and rapidly developing renewable energy," said Inga Žilienė, Lithuanian Deputy Energy Minister.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that in May, Russian gas constituted 15% of the total gas imports, including LNG, by the EU and other European countries, while American gas accounted for 14%.

Sanctions on Russian LNG were included in the 14th sanctions package adopted by the Council of the EU in June. However, it does not include a ban for EU countries to purchase Russian LNG.

In early June, the US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas projects that Moscow is currently attempting to implement.