EU-Azerbaijan energy partnership goes beyond gas – Jean-Michel Brun
By Trend
The EU-Azerbaijan energy partnership goes well beyond gas, Chief Executive Director of Lagazetteaz.fr newspaper, founded by Trend News Agency in France, Jean-Michel Brun told Trend.
He pointed out that the EU and Azerbaijan share the ambition to accelerate the development and deployment of renewable energy production and transmission capacities.
“Azerbaijan has tremendous potential in terms of renewable energies, particularly in the offshore energy sector, which Europe may also need to secure its energy needs,” Brun believes.
Touching upon the memorandum of understanding signed July 18 between the European Commission and Azerbaijan to double in a few years EU imports of natural gas from Azerbaijan, Brun noted that Azerbaijani gas will help Europeans get rid of their dependence on a single supplier.
Remember that the EU was importing 40 percent of its the gas annual needs. European sanctions against Russia risk pushing it to cut off European supplies, which naturally is a huge issue for Europe as winter approaches. Naturally, EU will also need to import gas from other countries such as the United States, Qatar, Norway, or Algeria. Europe's energy independence from a single supplier will take time, and Europe will have to make savings anyway to get through the winter without disruption. Europe needs, for its energy security, to deal with more reliable suppliers and Azerbaijan is one of them,” he said.
Brun went on to add that for Europe, the advantage of this agreement doesn’t concern only energy.
“It provides Europe with the opportunity to strengthen its economic and political ties with this part of the world, which is full of resources and has strong growth potential,” he explained.
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