Dan Jorgensen: The EU has imported fuel from Russia worth 2,400 F-35 fighter jets in 3 years

Since the beginning of the Russian military attack on Ukraine, the EU has imported fossil fuels from Russia worth the cost of 2,400 F-35 fighter jets, said European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen in an interview with the European Newsroom - a platform for cooperation of European news agencies, including BTA, the Bulgarian agency reported.

He announced that in the coming weeks the European Commission will present a proposal to end the import of Russian fossil fuels. We will strive for these measures not to be to the detriment of Europeans, the European Commissioner explained. According to him, without the US and Norway, the EU would be in a much more difficult situation with energy supplies today.

We need to do much more to be independent of Russian fossil fuel imports, in the last three years we have been spending more on them than we are giving in aid to Ukraine, said Jorgensen. He defined as important the rapid deployment of funds for the production of renewable energy, ensuring more transparency in the market and the transition to joint purchases of gas. According to him, the approval of renewable energy projects should be accelerated and last up to six months in the usual case and up to two years for the most complex projects.

Ukraine's energy mix is being assessed by the Ukrainians, he said in response to a question related to the possibility of Bulgaria delivering the reactors planned for the Belene NPP to the Ukrainian side. In the EU, we are trying to help as much as possible with the supply of energy to Ukraine and to help overcome the problems after the bombing. We are concerned about the shelling near nuclear power plants and on the connecting infrastructure, this is very dangerous, the European Commissioner pointed out.