EU energy chief says ‘this will be a long crisis’ and Europe must be ready

The European Union must be prepared for a long-lasting energy crisis, according to the official responsible for the sector at the executive body in Brussels.

While the EU is assessing “all possibilities” to deal with it, including fuel rationing, its leadership does not intend to give up plans to abandon Russian gas.

Fuel prices won’t go down soon, says head of European energy

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen is predicting a prolonged crisis caused by the war in the Middle East, which has been raging on for over a month now.

At the end of February, the United States and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Iran which retaliated by hitting targets across the Persian Gulf.

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for over 20% of global oil and gas shipments, sent oil prices soaring above $100 a barrel.

The extensive damage inflicted on energy infrastructure in the region sparked fears around the world about the future of energy supplies.

Europe, which has been among the most affected, is now considering options to deal with the energy shock, Jørgensen told the Financial Times on Friday, warning:

“This will be a long crisis … energy prices will be higher for a very long time.”

He added that for some “critical” products officials in Brussels expect the situation may worsen even more in the coming weeks.

The Commissioner insisted that the Union was “not in a security of supply crisis, yet.” At the same time, its administration is planning on how to address “structural, long-lasting effects” of the war.

“The rhetoric that we’re using and the words we’re using are more serious now than they were earlier in the crisis,” Jørgensen admitted, elaborating further:

“It certainly is our analysis that this will be a prolonged situation, and countries need to be sure that they … have what they need.”

He emphasized that the EU is preparing for the worst scenarios such as the rationing of oil products like diesel and jet fuel.

It’s also ready to release more oil from emergency reserves, although it doesn’t need to do that at the current moment.

“I mean, better to be prepared than to be sorry,” Jørgensen added in comments for the British business newspaper.

Amid surging market prices, EU member states carried out a large-scale release of oil reserves last month. Jørgensen would not exclude another one, if necessary, although he declined to indicate when that might happen.

Europe is not changing energy rules for now

At this point, Europe is not amending its regulations to allow imports of lower-grade jet fuel or gasoline containing more ethanol, Dan Jørgensen noted.

“We’re not there yet where we have remedied or changed any of our current rules,” he said, but also emphasized the Commission is looking at all possibilities.

“It’s clear the more serious the situation gets, the more, of course, we will also have to look into legislative tools,” Jørgensen remarked and stated:

“If this is indeed, as I project, a long-lasting crisis, then we need those tools also at a later stage. It needs to be done at the exact right time, and it needs to be proportionate.”

EU won’t budge on plan to ban Russian gas

At the same time, Jørgensen made it clear that Brussels has no intentions to amend the legislation that puts an end to imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the EU.

The European Union favors substituting them with shipments from the United States and other partners that operate in the free market, as he reasoned.

Russian LNG supplies to the bloc fell by 5.6% in 2025 to 20.3 billion cubic meters, TASS highlighted in report quoting the Energy Commissioner.

With total gas supplies of 38 billion cubic meters, Russia ranked fourth among Europe’s suppliers, with Norway, the U.S., and Algeria forming the top three, the news agency also noted.

In January, EU countries approved a complete ban on Russian LNG imports, starting from January 1, 2027, and pipeline gas imports from September 30, 2027.

However, some restrictions will enter into force much earlier. For example, LNG imports under short-term contracts will be prohibited from April 25, while short-term contracts for pipeline gas must be completed by June 17, 2026.

The decision is part of efforts to end the EU’s dependency on Russia’s energy and prevent Moscow from using the proceeds to fund its invasion of Ukraine.

The new conflict in Iran has led to surging fuel prices across the Old Continent and both wars are threatening to almost completely turn off the oil and gas taps for Europe.

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