Two camps, one led by Germany and the other by France, are fighting it out, each with a blocking minority on a specific point: Should low-carbon hydrogen be taken into account when measuring the efforts of member states to reach the target of 45% of renewables in their energy mix by 2030?

Germany suffered the most among EU member states from the Russian supply curtailments, with a number of buyers forced to buy expensive gas on the open market to make up for the Russian shortfall.

"Every politician knows who blew up Nord Stream, but hypocritically keeps quiet," says Vucic.

As the EU pushes more broadly to bolster clean energy, it’s also responding to concerns that green industries could emigrate to the US and China, with the price that Europe pays for its energy a driving factor.

Prior to the sanctions, between October 2021 and September 2022, diesel imports from Russia made up 53% of Northwest Europe’s seaborne imports.

The EU banned imports of Russian oil products from Feb. 5, two months after imposing restrictions on seaborne crude shipments from the country.

Отдельное внимание Министры уделили реализации программы по формированию объединённого рынка газа Союзного государства.

"Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals, to generate base-load electricity and to ensure security of supply," the French ministry noted.

At the same time, Russian LNG imports into the EU rose by around a third to 14.1 million mt (19 Bcm), but it was LNG from other sources -- the US in particular -- that helped fill some of the gap left by lost Russian gas.

Even though Europe has significantly cut its reliance on Russian gas, a lot of the storage that they used to cut the reliance was actually Russian gas from the past.

Overall gas use in the 27-nation European Union plunged by 19.3% from August to January compared with the five-year average for the same period,

Gas markets are in “better shape than many expected one year ago,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “But the reality is that winter 2023-2024 is likely to be the real test.”

Canadian and Polish nuclear regulators have extended their cooperation under a newly signed memorandum on joint activities in the field of small modular reactors (SMRs)

Benchmark futures are now trading just above €50, near the lowest levels since September 2021.

Ukraine, whose largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, has been calling for the sanctions to include the nuclear energy sector.