U.S.-EU Task Force on Energy Security met in Washington to discuss NG

On 3 November 2022, the U.S.-EU Task Force on Energy Security met in Washington to discuss implementation of the 25 March Joint Statement by Presidents Biden and Von der Leyen, which aims to help diversify the EU’s natural gas supplies and reduce natural gas demand and consumption. The Task Force builds on long-standing cooperation under the U.S.-EU Energy Council, including to advance the clean energy transition. The meeting was co-chaired by Björn Seibert, Head of Cabinet of the European Commission President, and Amos Hochstein, U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator, and under the leadership of Ditte Juul Jørgensen, European Commission Director General for Energy, and Stephanie Epner, Special Advisor and Acting Senior Director for Climate and Energy at the White House National Security Council.

The meeting of the Task Force took stock of joint work to date, including multiple meetings with EU Member States and EU and U.S. industry representatives to discuss and compare policy approaches, as well as best practices with respect to energy savings, deployment of clean energy technologies, and decoupling from Russian energy in 2022 and beyond.

Also, as the world gathers for COP27 this week, we reaffirmed our commitment to an accelerated and responsible clean energy transition, which is both key to achieving our shared climate goals and the best way to ensure long-term energy security around the world.

We condemned Russia’s unprovoked aggression on Ukraine and Russia’s repeated attacks on civilian energy and electricity infrastructure, and the risks to humanitarian conditions caused by these attacks. The EU and United States will continue to partner on providing emergency energy assistance to Ukraine, and support to other heavily affected countries in the region, such as Moldova, which face acute impacts from Russia’s actions to employ energy as a weapon.