Paris is joining a growing chorus of countries casting doubt on an EU push to buy more gas from the U.S.
BRUSSELS — Hold your ground.
That’s France’s advice for the EU as Brussels mulls ways to placate Donald Trump.
The U.S. president has threatened tariffs against the bloc unless it buys more American fossil fuels. And EU officials are keen to engage, even readying a package of potential goodies for Trump.
But for Paris, that shouldn’t mean bending the knee.
“These negotiations are bound to be difficult given the positions expressed by the American president,” said French Industry and Energy Minister Marc Ferracci, but “you can’t go into a negotiation making concessions up front.”
“And above all, I don’t think we should give in to Donald Trump’s demands as a matter of principle,” he told POLITICO. “That’s my conviction.”
On Wednesday, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič told the European Parliament that the European Commission was “ready to explore deeper EU-U.S. cooperation” including liquified natural gas (LNG) purchases and joint efforts to tackle China’s market-distorting practices.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen even discussed energy with Trump directly in their first phone call after the U.S. election, and later said the EU should be open to buying more American LNG. Washington is currently the EU’s largest supplier of the supercooled fuel — and second-largest gas partner after Norway.
Ferracci’s comments add to a growing chorus of European politicians casting doubt on that strategy. Germany and Finland have said buying more LNG from the U.S. is both unrealistic and jeopardizes the EU’s push to decarbonize its economy by 2050.
The EU, however, sees buying U.S. gas as a convenient way to fully end Russian LNG imports by 2027. The bloc bought record levels of the fuel from Moscow last year.
Despite that, Brussels chose not to crack down on Russian LNG in its latest sanctions proposal this week, prompting disappointment from the bloc’s hawks.
France is currently the bloc’s biggest direct buyer of Russian LNG. Last month the country bought 660,000 tons of the fuel, according to the Kpler commodities platform, accounting for 43 percent of the EU’s total imports.
That’s partly because French energy giant TotalEnergies holds a 20 percent stake in Russia’s Yamal LNG project, which operates a liquefaction plant in northwestern Siberia. Under a long-term contract, the firm must buy at least 4 million tons of LNG from the facility each year until 2032.
Ferracci, who was in Brussels on Thursday to discuss ways to save Europe’s carbon-heavy industries with EU officials, said Paris had no plans to change its Russian LNG stance or to support a total ban on imports.
The EU chose to “turn to the United States … and also the Middle East” for new supplies after Russia cut gas to the bloc following its invasion of Ukraine, he said, and “found a balance.”
“At this stage,” he added, “our stance is to maintain that balance.”
