The European Union will renew its offer to the United States to increase purchases of US liquefied natural gas (LNG), hoping that President Donald Trump will show greater willingness for dialogue after the announced 90-day moratorium on new global tariffs. This was reported by Politico, citing three European officials, News.bg reports.
Brussels is preparing concrete proposals aimed at meeting Washington's demands and reducing tensions in transatlantic trade relations. Among the ideas is pooling demand for liquefied natural gas through large-scale pan-European orders that would meet the White House's expectations, but on more competitive terms.
“These proposals have been on the table for some time, but now we hope there is an opportunity to move forward“, commented one of the sources of the publication.
Earlier this week, Trump announced 20% tariffs on imports from the EU and demanded that European countries increase their purchases of American energy by $350 billion. Surprisingly, on Wednesday night he announced a 90-day moratorium on most of the new tariffs and called for renewed negotiations.
The European Union sees this pause as an opportunity to put the topic of increased supplies of American liquefied gas back on the agenda — both to improve relations with the US and as part of a long-term strategy to reduce energy dependence on Russia.
“We will buy more gas from the US in the future“, confirmed EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen, stressing that such deals must also meet the bloc's climate goals.
Despite diplomatic progress, challenges remain. LNG purchases in the EU are carried out by private companies, and some countries are already signaling that importers have reached their capacity limits. Attempts to collectively negotiate gas supplies since the start of the war in Ukraine have also failed to achieve the expected results due to weak business interest.
Additional pressure comes from the requirement that member states fill 90% of their gas storage by November 1. A potential race for supplies in the summer would push up prices, leading some European capitals to push for more flexibility in the rules to contain costs.
On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that the EU would respond to any possible tariff rollbacks, but added: “We want to give negotiations a chance.“