Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, believes that in the future the EU will stop buying Russian gas.
"We have decided that we will get rid of too much energy dependence that we have built on Russia," Josep Borrel, head of EU diplomacy, said in an interview with Television Espanola.
He noted that first the EU will stop buying coal, then oil, but for gas a longer time frame because of the long adaptation.
"And Russia knows that we will stop buying gas from it," Borrel believes.
Also, the EU high representative for foreign affairs said that Russia does not have to sell its gas to Europe. He urged the European countries to save energy voluntarily, so they would not have to do it on an obligatory basis.
Borrell said that the EU has already started saving blue fuel from Russia. The head of the European diplomacy added that after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, "the import of Russian gas was 40% of the total European gas," now it is close to 20%. He specified that Europe saves about 6% of gas consumption when the heating temperature is reduced by only one degree.
The diplomat added that the European Union has approved almost all sanctions against Russia, which could approve.
"The situation with gas now is the opposite, not that we don't want to buy it, but [Russia] may not want to sell it to us," Borrel noted.
The Council of the European Union adopted on Tuesday, July 26, a plan proposed by the EC to voluntarily reduce gas consumption by 15 percent from August 1 to March 31, 2023.