PM Criticises EU Energy Commissioner over Ban on Russian Gas Imports

Bratislava, 29 January (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Thursday criticised EU Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen after the latter expressed concerns about the EU's dependence on imports of natural gas from the USA, stressing that it was the European Commission itself, of which Jorgensen is a member, that pushed through the RePowerEU plan banning imports of Russian gas as of November of next year, thus causing the EU's dependence. Fico published his post on a social network ahead of his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. "Mr Commissioner, weren't you at work? Weren't you on the European Commission when it submitted an insane ideological proposal, which was eventually approved, halting imports of any gas from the Russian Federation as of 2027 and replacing everything with LNG from the USA? Are you kidding us, Mr Commissioner?" asked the prime minister. Fico also spoke about other foreign policy issues in his post. In his opinion, European leaders are gradually changing their minds about them. As one example, he pointed to a statement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer when meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping that it's vital to build the relationship between the two countries. "Well, hurrah! But may I ask where you all were, for example, in September, when China was celebrating the victory over fascism?" asked Fico, commenting in a similar vein on statements about the need to conduct a dialogue with Russia. jrg/df